Great-Tailed Grackles

The Great-tailed Grackle, a.k.a. the Mexican Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus). Big, bold, noisy, communal roosters. The first time I met them was in San Antonio some years ago. They spent the night in the trees along the River Walk. I was pooped upon. That’ll learn me. This time I enjoyed them from an angle.

In 1900, this species was barely recorded in the U.S. Since then, they’ve followed irrigation into the midwest and plain states, making them one of the fastest range-expanding species in North American. The Boat-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus major), which you will find along the East Coast’s shoreline, including in Jamaica Bay, was once thought to be the same species, but is now considered separate.