Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Purple-headed Grackle

No, not some new species of Grackle, but I thought this photo really captured the beauty of this species and the irridescence on the head really stood out. You can see why it used to be called Purple Grackle.

We had our annual invasion of Common Grackles last week. One or two days out of each late winter, they converge on our neighborhood. They swoop in and gorge themselves on anything and everything and then disappear. They seem to particularly like one neighbor's lawn. I don't know what that means for their lawn, but I guess there is something good to eat there. So, I spent the day chasing these birds away from my feeder since they dessimate my seed supply. Still a pretty bird though!

5 comments:

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

Even thought these guys can empty the feeders PDQ, I like them.

Anonymous said...

We will have these guys in about 2 or 3 months--I did like them because the go through seed like no tomarrow.

dguzman said...

They are pretty, but they are pigs! Nice photo!

Anonymous said...

The grackles are back here too and eating up a storm. They will stay here until they wean their young. I don't know the correct term for that but when they young grow up and look like their parents then it is time for them to take off for the year.

I have brought back my hawks blog. Blogger saved the name for me. I have started posted in it again and have a lot of pictures yet to post.

http://coopershawk.blogspot.com/

Larry said...

My wife who is not a birder has been fooled by these birds before.She has excitedly told me of the big black birds with a purplish head thinking it was a new species.-Nice photo!