General

Boat-tailed Grackle: Large, black bird with very long, keel-shaped tail. Male is iridescent blue-black with yellow or brown eyes. Female is smaller with dark brown upperparts, pale brown breast, and yellow eyes. Juvenile male has dark eyes and no iridescent sheen. Juvenile female may exhibit vague spotting and streaks on breast.

Range and Habitat

Boat-tailed Grackle: Rarely strays from coastal salt marshes except in Florida where it is also inland. It is found around ponds and streams (Florida peninsula), farmlands, towns and cities. Their range is expanding up the Atlantic coast.

Breeding and Nesting

Boat-tailed Grackle: Three to five pale blue to blue-gray eggs with splotches of black, brown, purple, and gray are laid in a bulky nest made of dried stalks, grass, and cattails (in marshes) or Spanish moss, feathers, mud, cow dung, and bits of debris (in trees). Incubation ranges from 13 to 15 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Boat-tailed Grackle: Eats small fish, frogs, snails, aquatic and terrestrial insects, shrimp, small bird eggs and nestlings, small reptiles, fruits, berries, and seeds. Sometimes steals food from other birds.

Readily Eats

Peanuts, Sunflower Seed, Nuts, Sunflower

Vocalization

Boat-tailed Grackle: Song is a loud, abrasive "jeeb, jeeb, jeeb." Calls include a noisy variety of harsh whistles, chucks, guttural rattles, raspy clicks, and wolf whistles.

Similar Species

Boat-tailed Grackle: Great-tailed grackle is larger and has bright yellow eyes, longer bill, flatter crown, and is found inland west of Mississippi River. Smooth-billed Ani has dark eyes, thick curved bill, and long, graduated tail.