Roscoe The Tame Grackle Is Back

Oldjackssparrows wrote in post #16483503
Hullo Mitch, long time!
I have a small plastic pond and was wondering why the Goldfish were disappearing until I noticed a Grackle standing on the edge, ahhhh, never saw them catch one but when they moved on the fish quit flying away lol Also, in my little birdbath almost always the Grackles would soak a bit of corn or peanuts, not long but almost always. They are indeed very smart, used to not really like them all that much but now I look forward to them coming for a visit.

Watch them next time when more than one shows up. They do like your food, but they pay it back. They will work for food. When they first show up, they all land in the grass. Assuming you don't put down bug poisons and such, they will form a line and work along like a skirmish line, eating every bug in the grass, they even eat worms, just like a robin does, and then they go for your food. Starlings do the same thing. All summer long, my yard is bug free, while my neighbors always complain about mosquitos and gnats. HA. grackles and starlings are my secret weapon.

canonloader wrote in post #16483298
Ha, he's very cool looking. I never got Roscoe that tame.

Yes, they always come back to their home territory. When he get's old, he might stay with you if he is indoors. He will live longer in captivity. Migration is very hard on birds, a lot of dangers and it's just hard to fly so far, wears them down.

Good to know they come back and not a long way elsewhere. All started when I picked him/ her up from under our grackle pine tree about two days after hatching - eyes opened only on the second day of feeding inside. That was a second brood, and his family left before he could fly. All my previous drop-outs were fed for several weeks and then returned to their families successfully when they managed to fly. Kitchi was too late for that. We were if not tempted than just considering keeping him/ her with us for good. Our wish to get him back to his intended life always prevailed. Last couple of moths before Kitchi left South November 3 he was visiting us for half a day usually, picking food from the feeder just very occasionally. Sometimes he would not show up for more than a week. Last evening with us, he sat on my wife's and my shoulders for half hour, then bit goodbye at my ear, called loud once or twice, and left at 4 PM flying high South East. When he/ she gets old and might benefit from living with us inside - Kitchi will be, as he has always been, most welcome. I hope the conditions will match - he would come back to our yard next year and hopefully in the consecutive years, then he and us live long enough to figure out whether and when he would like to come in and live indoors. Thank you very much - I am very grateful to you for sharing your thoughts and observations. -Champaign, IL -Dmitri

Look at my Facebook videos with Kitchi if you would like. The one when he was the youngest fed with a pipette is a long way down the page to scroll.
https://www.facebook.c​om/dmitri.v.novikov

Wait a minute, we have Grackles EVERYWHERE here, (seriously, they should be the state bird) do they ALL have these blue feathers on their head? The ones here just look solid black. To my knowledge, I had never seen them prior to moving here but you can't mistake them because of their looks and their unbelievably irritating call. Personally, I know nothing about birds, but I live along a major migration route (I live in South West Texas 3 miles from Mexico) and I ran into a birding couple that travel the US and they mentioned that the Grackles here really are extremely annoying, it's not just me. Anyway, I'm just curious if the ones here actually look like this and it's just the lighting that's bringing out the head feathers, or if they're a different type.

canonloader wrote in post #16483536
Watch them next time when more than one shows up. They do like your food, but they pay it back. They will work for food. When they first show up, they all land in the grass. Assuming you don't put down bug poisons and such, they will form a line and work along like a skirmish line, eating every bug in the grass, they even eat worms, just like a robin does, and then they go for your food. Starlings do the same thing. All summer long, my yard is bug free, while my neighbors always complain about mosquitos and gnats. HA. grackles and starlings are my secret weapon.

Insect lawn poisoning let alone targeted bird poisoning should be prohibited - this is bad for our health, our pets and birds, and we will take the toll first of the three. I will be lobbying this first thing and hard if/ when I get enough means to do it.

Fitness Freak wrote in post #16485085
Wait a minute, we have Grackles EVERYWHERE here, (seriously, they should be the state bird) do they ALL have these blue feathers on their head? The ones here just look solid black. To my knowledge, I had never seen them prior to moving here but you can't mistake them because of their looks and their unbelievably irritating call. Personally, I know nothing about birds, but I live along a major migration route (I live in South West Texas 3 miles from Mexico) and I ran into a birding couple that travel the US and they mentioned that the Grackles here really are extremely annoying, it's not just me. Anyway, I'm just curious if the ones here actually look like this and it's just the lighting that's bringing out the head feathers, or if they're a different type.

There are several species of Grackles. Kitchi is the Common Grackle, bronze race. There are three races of the Common Grackle particularly distinguished by the coloration, all having distinct head and body color. Geographically, these three races are arguably north, central, and south considering their summer time. In the winter, you have them all in Texas. This species declined in its number by 60% during last several decades. As to the birding couple and some other annoyed people - I think we are much easier to get annoyed and irritated than to appreciate. It is what it is.

Kitchi is most definately a male Common Grackle. Healthy and happy looking. There are three kinds of Grackles, the Common Grackle like Kitchi, Then the boat Tailed Grackel, bigger and a longer V shaped tail. V shaped like a long trough. And the Great-tailed Grackles, live out West. Kitchi will be back early next spring, he will come right to the feeder or maybe your window and he'll be hungry, LOL

The irridescent head colors are the males, the females are all black and duller colored without the bluish sheen to the feathers. Once you see one, they are easy to tell the difference.

Lawn and bug poisons are just stupid. It keeps the birds away. if you let the birds do the work, you don't need the danger and expense of the poisons. The runoff kills fish and everything else that uses water too. Sheesh, humans are so stupid. One thing aboput birds though, they don't like dogs around. Probably cause they crap and pee all over a yard. LOL

Yup. I just looked up the three and ours are clearly the Great-tailed Grackles. They love to land on the cars here and eat the dead bugs out of our grills-which works for me. They definitely have a distinctive call but this region of Texas is definitely the noisiest place (birds-wise) that I've ever lived. We do have these gorgeous yellow birds (which I can't remember what they are at the moment) with stripes on their heads that I see just a couple of months a year. They tend to hang out by my pool and drink from the hose. We also have these smaller black birds that I just started seeing about a month ago that are really pretty, although I can't really say why. Thanks for info Gentlemen!

Edit: I just looked it up and the yellow bird is the Great Kiskadee.

Perhaps Kitchi is a male - I have not been sure. The reason I am not sure - the weight of 108 g is more female and also please check
http://www.migrationre​search.org/mbo/id/cogr​.html#menu
Females have also blueish heads and also larger distance from the eye straight up to the top of the head. Regardless, it does not change much for us and expectations for the next year - besides the fact that females are more busy with the nests and children.

Fitness Freak wrote in post #16485213
Yup. I just looked up the three and ours are clearly the Great-tailed Grackles. They love to land on the cars here and eat the dead bugs out of our grills-which works for me. They definitely have a distinctive call but this region of Texas is definitely the noisiest place (birds-wise) that I've ever lived. We do have these gorgeous yellow birds (which I can't remember what they are at the moment) with stripes on their heads that I see just a couple of months a year. They tend to hang out by my pool and drink from the hose. We also have these smaller black birds that I just started seeing about a month ago that are really pretty, although I can't really say why. Thanks for info Gentlemen!

Edit: I just looked it up and the yellow bird is the Great Kiskadee.

Birds are nice in all respects, whether annoying or not - I understand this. Even though I have raised more than a dozen drop-out grackle nestlings over the last several years - I did not come that close to the real understanding of a bird until Kitchi grew up with us. That has been very different and revealing - communicating with him in all manners deeper than you might communicate with anyone else. Birds fly and see more than we see anyway.

leafhopper wrote in post #16485323
Birds fly and see more than we see anyway.

I know. That's why I always wonder why any of them would ever choose to stay here. 98-112 degrees 8 months out of the year so the poor things stand around "panting" all the time. I had never seen birds do that prior to moving here but it's a very common site in these parts. And then it was so cold here four days ago (40 degrees with 25 mph sustained winds and 30 mph gusts giving us a 27 degree wind chill. All this was much worse because just the day before it was 80 degrees) and I had one of these poor Grackles on my truck when I came out of the grocery store. He was standing in front of my air scoop trying to get warm from the engine. I think he was hoping I'd let him in the truck with me because he let me walk within 2 ft of him twice, unload my groceries in the back, get in my truck, and back completely out of my parking spot before he decided to fly away.

Fitness Freak wrote in post #16485355
I know. That's why I always wonder why any of them would ever choose to stay here. 98-112 degrees 8 months out of the year so the poor things stand around "panting" all the time. I had never seen birds do that prior to moving here but it's a very common site in these parts. And then it was so cold here four days ago (40 degrees with 25 mph sustained winds and 30 mph gusts giving us a 27 degree wind chill. All this was much worse because just the day before it was 80 degrees) and I had one of these poor Grackles on my truck when I came out of the grocery store. He was standing in front of my air scoop trying to get warm from the engine. I think he was hoping I'd let him in the truck with me because he let me walk within 2 ft of him twice, unload my groceries in the back, get in my truck, and back completely out of my parking spot before he decided to fly away.

We have 18 degrees now - even sparrows come down to my feeder only for less than an hour a day -the rest of the time they have to slow down their metabolism and sit still in our bamboo. As to panting in summer - well that is probably a reason why there are also two other races that prefer north for the summer. Kitchi used to pant at about 85 degrees.

We have 25 below weather here many winters. The birds are built for it or they could not survive. But for hundreds of years, people have been living with birds and I grew up feeding them suet in the winter. You could buy it very cheap, still can, and deer hunters get lot's of it every year and will give it away if you ask for it. Birds love suet and even buttery flavored Crisco or a block of lard if you can't find it to buy. It keeps them alive through the nights.

Birds pant in hot weather or find a creek to dip in to stay cool. in winter, they shiver all night. It's a built in reflex. Suet gives them the energy to do that.

Just got eight pounds of suet in Walmart, about a buck a pound. Put some out for the birds, opossums, raccoons and squirrels with usual grain and food.

What bothers me about bugs and yards - why is that people are so scared of the insects in their lawns? They will not eat the lawn up, they will be nice in there. They have come to the planet millions of years ahead of us and they did not eat up the grass - they have never meant to. What is the beef then?

HAHAHA, it's the companies that make lawn poison and their salesmen telling you you need it. And of course, the more stupid people buy into that.

It's the same for lawn food companies. The people that make rakes and lawnmowers that collect the clippings are all behind that. They make you think you need to rake all the leaves and take all the good stuff that in a normal world would go back into the soil, and cart it off somewhere else to rot and turn into good mulch, then some smart cookie comes along, buys it from the city and bags it up and sells it back to those same people that rake their lawns and send it to the garbage collection. And then they spread it back onto their lawns. Duhhhhh.

When we were sitting together - my wife, Kitchi and I, at times Kitchi was agitated pecking at our hands for unknown for us reasons. I figured out why finally. When my wife slapped a mosquito on my shoulder, Kitchi pecked her hand several times. Then, getting the idea, I touched my wife’s shoulder – Kitchi immediately interfered pecking at my hands all over – he wanted peace, that’s it.