#Icterids

[spinus-pinus]

Red-winged Blackbird Agelauius phoeniceus

4/6/2022 Orange County, Florida

[uwmspeccoll]

Feathursday Icterids

On this first Feathursday of the New Year, we present four members of the Icterid family of New World blackbirds that are common here in the Upper Midwest. From top to bottom, they are:

Yellow-headed Blackbird  (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) 

Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)

Bobolink, male and female (Dolichonyx oryzivorus)

Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta)

This image is from a painting by the German naturalist artist and ornithologist Anton Göring ( 1836-1905), reproduced as a chromolithograph in our 2-volume set of Our Native Birds of Song and Beauty, by the late-19th-century director of the Milwaukee Public Museum Henry Nehrling (1853-1929), and published in Milwaukee by George Brumder (1839-1910) from 1893-1896.

View more posts from Nehrling’s Our Native Birds.

View more Feathursday posts.

[podartists]

Dolichonyx oryzivorus | Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus | Agelaius phoeniceus | Sturnella magna

Plate XXIX | Die Nordamerikanische Vogelwelt (1891)

[dougdimmadodo]

Boat-Tailed Grackle (Quiscalus major)

Family: American Blackbird Family (Icteridae)

IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern

Native to the southeastern USA, the Boat-Tailed Grackle shares much of its range with the closely related Common Grackle, but can be distinguished from its relative thanks to its larger size (Growing to be around 40cm/15.7 inches long compared to the around 32cm/12.6 inch long Common Grackle) and its considerably longer, broader tail, which is present in both sexes but more prominent in males. Found largely in coastal habitats (although they may also be found near large inland bodies of water or in human settlements where they feed on abandoned food scraps), members of this species roost in large, loosely organised flocks that may contain hundreds of individuals, and which scatter during the day to feed on seeds, fruits, insects, eggs and small vertebrates such as frogs, fishes and occasionally smaller birds before gathering back together at dusk. Boat-Tailed Grackles mate in the early spring (with a male establishing a strictly-guarded territory and producing a high-pitched mating call to invite a large number of females into it) and nest during the late spring and early summer (with several females constructing small, cup-shaped nests among dense elevated vegetation within close proximity to one another to increase the likelihood of potential predators and egg thieves being spotted, and 3-5 pale, speckled and striped eggs being laid in each nest.) Females of this species have pale brown bodies and dark brown wings, while males (such as the individual pictured above) are nearly twice the size of females and possess iridescent black feathers that reflect light in such a way that they may appear purple, blue or green if seen under bright sunlight. As is true of many grackles the males of this species are frequently mistaken for crows (with the word grackle being derived from the Latin graculus, meaning “jackdaw”, in reference to the two small species of Eurasian crows known collectively as jackdaws), but despite their superficial similarities grackles and crows are not closely related (with grackles and their fellow American Blackbirds being more closely related to the American Sparrows of the family Passerellidae.)

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Image Source: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/9601-Quiscalus-major

(Side note: Some of the sources I’ve read about grackles seem to suggest that they’re among the most common passerine birds in North America, but I’m curios as to how true that is. I don’t suppose anyone who sees this post and lives in/has been to America can confirm or deny this?)

[geopsych]

On this day 2 years ago. I had goosebumps standing there. They flew so close to me!

Flock of grackles and maybe some red-winged blackbirds. I love how I could hear their wings at the beginning.

[ravensvalley]

#CommonGrackel

…with all these temperature variations around here, no one can really be sure if it's Spring Season.

But today a small flock of these magnificent Common Grackels has arrived to enjoy the sun with us so, it's official now. We're in!

[unrestrained-balderdash-art-blog]

Migratory May Day 10: Common Grackle

Reference photo by Michael O'Brien

[moraymoth]

west shared with @starryelem

[keeskiwi]

trick or treat!

I am just a brown headed cowbird . I'm not a cuckoo but I believe in their beliefs O_O

Why hello there! You are so lovely, may you grow big and strong with all these treats!

Brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) begging from chipping sparrow parent (Spizella passerina) by Kathy Ward, shared under CC BY-NC.

[isame-allen]

Hi Isa! i recently found out that is ship child floating around. Can you draw one, their is a painted wings one i think by unagidevi i like ( ͡^ ͜ʖ ͡^ )

-🌸

Hi Sakura! Yes I can draw them!

[oberon-king-of-the-cherries]

I went on my first date a few weeks ago and while I did not have any strong or sudden feelings about him, I may have to reevaluate that, as he has just sent me—without prompting—fish content. When I texted him back pictures of my shrimp, he very appropriately responded “Shrimps?!”

[spinus-pinus]

Great-tailed Grackle Quiscalus mexicanus

7/25/2023 Valle Escondido Preserve, Costa Rica

[wigmund]

Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata)

Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula)

Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor)

American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla)

Orchard Oriole (Icterus spurius)

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris)

Black-and-White Warbler (Mniotilta varia)

American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis)

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus)

Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea)

Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia)

Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)

Cute birds appreciation post

[podartists]

Icterus bullockii | Icterus cucullatus nelsoni | Icterus parisorum | Pyrocephalus rubinus mexicanus

Plate XXXI | Die Nordamerikanische Vogelwelt (1891)

[icterid-rubus]

Nearly a year after making it, I’ve just realized I misspelled my Reddit username. It’s driving me up the wall.

[neofelis----nebulosa]

one of the best examples of convergent evolution that we as a society need to talk about more is between the grackles and the glossy starlings

Like what you mean they aren't closely related???