After a while, one learns what to expect with each month and each season. July is going to be hot and humid. October will be colorful and somewhat melancholy. January will be cold and sleepy. And then ...

The Common Grackle – A medium-sized blackbird whose plumage is black, and has a sheen that is glossy and iridescent. Common Grackles range over almost all of eastern North America east of the Rockies, ...

SOUTH NEWFANE Last week, I was a music critic, reviewing the musical abilities of our locally common blackbirds: red-winged blackbird, brown-headed cowbird, and common grackle. My review was not ...

Texans—especially urban Texans—are intimately familiar with grackles. The chattering, swaggering great-tailed grackle is a common sight in urban areas, with numbers that have boomed to 4.8 million in ...

Grackles have been prancing around my lawn this week showing off their iridescence as they search for grubs and other fodder. The grackles are large, black, conspicuous – and almost always unwelcome ...

I’ve been seeing a lot of common grackles lately, so now is probably a good time to feature the species. But let me first address an error from last week. I ...

When we think about signs of spring in New England, what usually comes to mind? Flocks of robins, red-winged blackbirds staking out territory in the marsh, vernal pools and peepers (they’ve been ...

My friend John loved grackles. He believed that, to be true to the oft-trumpeted independent Texas spirit, we should change our state bird. Why share the mockingbird, he said, with four other states, ...

There are many villains in the bird world and the common grackle is one of them. This large blackbird is a common bully around feeders, chasing the other birds away while he feasts on the seeds.