GRACKLE PHOTOS

Peter and Linda Kreisman first reported the Great-tailed Crackles at Emigrant Lake. Today, Ryuss Namitz had this update: “I followed up a report of 3 male & 1 female GREAT-TAILED GRACKLES at the tent campground at Emigrant Lake in southern Jackson County on Aug 17th.

I arrived this afternoon and found 1 male and 2 females at campsite 11. They may have bred there or in the nearby area though I haven’t heard anything about them all summer.”

Here are two of the Kreisman’s photos:

The first confirmed record of nesting GTGs in Oregon was 1994 at Malheur in eastern Oregon [BIRDS OF OREGON by Marshall, et al.] Previously the first California nesting record was at Imperial Dam on the Colorado River in 1969 [CALIFORNIA BIRDS, Arnold Small]. In general the species has been expanding its range westward and northward. I saw my first California GTG a few years back making a racket above a busy intersection in Seaside just north of Monterey. This adaptable species is fine with people noise, lawns and traffic.

There have been previous sightings near White City in recent years. Printed field guides cannot keep up with fast-moving range change in birds like this grackle or Eurasian Collared-Doves. Most show the bird only in the Bay Area and San Joaquin Valley. A look at eBird’s mapping shows the GTG is nesting around Redding and probably in scattered open areas of Siskiyou County. It’s now being seen is spots along the Willamette. Expect it to be nesting in coastal British [really Canadian] Columbia before long. Climate Change will likely take it all the way to coastal Alaska.

CALIFORNIA GRACKLES Coincidentally I just got this email from a good birding friend in Marin County, CA. Len Blumin, on the GTGs there: “At the Las Gallinas ponds last week our group of Vagrants Birders, aka, the “Vagrants”, were surprised at the number of Great-tailed Grackles we encountered, perhaps 10-15 in all, with maybe 3-4 males and the rest females and juveniles. The Great-tailed, Quiscalus mexicanus, is a species that adapts well to human presence and activity, whether it be to our dumpsters, lawns, parks or irrigated farmlands. I learned from the BNA account (#570, Johnson and Peer, 2001) that in the year 1900 the Great-tailed was breeding only in the southern tip of Texas), yet by the year 2000 it had expanded inexorably to breed in 14 states across the mid-south-west quadrant of the U.S, and has been seen in 21 states plus Canada! It was even described as a “human commensal” (Johnson).

“The Great-tailed Blackbird is well-named, as the male can be identified at distance as it flies with his prodigious tail trailing behind. At first glance a perched male may be mistaken for a male Brewer’s Blackbird, as both have yellow eyes and iridescent plumage, but the prodigious bill of the Great-tailed and indeed the very size of the bird is much more like our American Crow! The only blackbird approaching it in size is the similar Boat-tailed Grackle of the of the southeast and Gulf coasts. The Great-tailed Grackle is polygynous, sings loudly with a wide variety of calls and songs, and has a range that extends down through Central America and into northern South America, mostly in lowlands and coastal habitats. The browner females are also known to be less than faithful to the dominant male in their territory.”
Here are Len’s pictures of two of those grackles: