Crabby Grackles

[Normcar]

The one thing that impressed me about these birds is the eyes, first of all, and the seeming crabbiness, second of all. Oneseems to benagging the other: Get off my favorite stump!



Them eyes, them eyes... actually, in this one they look kinda dreamy. Maybe it's because thenag above has left the room?

[geoffs]

Norm, these are really good pictures. They stumped me for awhile because you id'ed them as Grackles but that just didn't feel right to me. I'm going to say that I think that these are immature Brewer's Blackbirds. Now, the obvious question would be "Why do you think that?"

Here's my reasoning:

1. Look at the tails of these birds - a grackle's tail is wedge-shaped or keeled and the tails of these birds are shorter than what I would expect a grackle's to be and there is no visible wedge or keel to the tail.

2. Juvenile grackles do have the dark brown plumage but they have dark eyes.

3. Male Brewer's blackbirds have greenish irridescence visible on the body feathers. If you look at these birds you can see the beginnings of plumage on their backs which is showing that green irridescence.

Do you remember their size? Brewer's blackbirds (and Rusty too) are about the size of a Robin. Grackles are even larger.

[Normcar]

I knew I was amiss, I knew it, even when looking at the bird book. Something was wrong, but everything else was right, so I went with it.

Thanks geoff!

Size was definitely blackbird size. Perhaps the 5000 other blackbirds around should have helped to clue me in, but I wanted a Grackle. Waaa! Oh well, I'll get over it.

[zoomn]

Nice work Normcar, I got a laugh out of your description on the first one.

Nice shots both, with perfect focus (as usual for you) and nice detail. Like the way you got that green background to be almost one color.

[bobbyz]

I agree with geoffs, they look like brewer's blacbird.

Don't feel bad Normcar. The Bird IDing is a tough job. I get confused so many times, comparing my shot with the photo in my birding book.

[geoffs]

Bird id is a tough job. Even after 40 years birding, I have to look back and forth with the field guide for a lot of birds and even then I get some ids wrong!

[Eric CAN]

geoffs wrote:

Bird id is a tough job. Even after 40 years birding, I have to look back and forth with the field guide for a lot of birds and even then I get some ids wrong!

You're doing not too badly indeed Geoff

Nice catch Norm, I couldn't tell if they were Grachle, Geoff came to the rescue :lol:

I'm just contemplating 3 very young BlueJay right now, I knew right away they were immature cause their alarm shout just sounds so wrong, LOL. Reminds me of baby Chikadee lately with the sore throat chikedee song they can't do well. I can't take photos of the Blue Jay, its cloudy heavily right now, clouds are about 500 feet max and are heavy, there's simply not enough light.

But I gave them shelled peanuts, one of them is immitating a parent, but can't seem to know how to crack the shell yet

So I'll keep them returning with these peanuts and then when the weather will permit, I'll have all the possibilities to get lots of shots at them.


Cheers

[geoffs]

Eric CAN wrote:

You're doing not too badly indeed Geoff

Well, thank you very much, Eric! It means alot to me when it comes from you because you are a pretty good birder yourself!

I'm just contemplating 3 very young BlueJay right now, I knew right away they were immature cause their alarm shout just sounds so wrong, LOL. Reminds me of baby Chikadee lately with the sore throat chikedee song they can't do well.

Many people do not realize that for many birds, singing the song that is associated with their species is both a combination of innate and learned behavior. It takes practice and often the assistance of hearing correct song from more mature individuals of their species.