# Carib Grackle

*Quiscalus lugubris*

Carib Grackles are known to dip hard food, such as dry bread or crackers, into water to soften it before consumption.

- **Taxonomy:** Animalia › Chordata › Aves › Passeriformes › Icteridae › Quiscalus
- **IUCN Red List status:** Least Concern
- **Population trend:** increasing
- **Biome:** urban
- **Habitat:** Open country, gardens, parks, agricultural land, and urban centers.
- **Diet:** Omnivorous: insects, small lizards, fruit, seeds, and anthropogenic food waste.
- **Range:** Lesser Antilles, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Colombia, Guyana
- **Size:** 24-28 cm in length; males are significantly larger and glossier than females.
- **Lifespan:** 5-10 years
- **Active:** diurnal
- **Threats:** Minimal; primarily faces risks from pesticide exposure and occasional human conflict in agricultural zones.
- **Safe to approach?:** Harmless. These birds are bold and highly habituated to humans. They may approach closely for food; do not feed them processed human scraps. Maintain a respectful distance during nesting season to avoid defensive swooping.

## About

The Carib grackle ( Quiscalus lugubris ) is a New World tropical blackbird, a resident breeder in the Lesser Antilles and northern South America east of the Andes, from Colombia east to Venezuela and north-eastern Brazil.

## Sources

- Plate: https://gaia-dex.com/species/9537d596-3f59-4c6b-9ca0-67327590cade
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/9600
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiscalus lugubris
- Conservation status: IUCN Red List category, as recorded by Gaia-Dex
- Photo: https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/26499415/medium.jpeg (Nicolas Olejnik, CC-BY, via iNaturalist)

Habitat, diet, size and similar notes are AI-written summaries; check them against the linked sources before relying on them.