On 18 Mar 2001, at 17:49, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Speaking of the things that come out of Texas, Alan, when I was in
> San Antonio, there were these HUGE, LOUD black birds everywhere. (Even
> outside my hotel door in the only tree in the parking lot, but that
> was my fault for failure to think ahead!) Do you know what these birds
> are called?
Probably you saw Grackles. Did the larger birds - the males, have a
sort of purple iridescent neck/head area?
http://www.ashlists.org/temp/grackle.jpg
http://www.ashlists.org/temp/grackle2.jpg
The females are less black...they are more brownish-black with no
iridescent crown.
Generally a nuisance bird for backyard birders. They tend to make a
lot of noise and chase the song birds away. However, the
mockingbirds, albeit smaller, take no guff from them. I've seen
mockingbirds take no quarter from grackles and chase them all over
the neighbor. If you see a grackle with it's tail missing, it was
probably a mockingbird that bit it off. :-)
Alan
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
