Great-tailed Grackle. Oceanside, California. May 24, 2015. Greg Gillson. |
These birds are in the blackbird and oriole family (not the crow and jay family). Males of all grackles have a large wedge-shaped tail that they hold in a folded 'V' shape, rather than flat as other blackbirds.
Sexually dimorphic, males are much larger and glossier bluish-black than the grayer females, such as the female below.
Because they are loud and bold, they are considered pests in many areas, such as campgrounds where they raid garbage cans and steal food from picnic tables (not to mention waking campers at God-awful early morning hours... oops, I did mention it after all).
Thank goodness for the crop feature in Photoshop Elements. See the original photo below of the introductory photo above! I was able to remove the Barq's root beer can and some other shoreline trash.
See a previous post where I kept the garbage in the photo with the birds.
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