Great-tailed Grackle
A bird a day keeps the chaos away
Great-tailed Grackle
GRTGRA
Quiscalus mexicanus
ORDER: Passeriformes
FAMILY: Icteridae
Laguna Seca Ranch, Edinburg, Texas, March 2025
Large, lanky blackbird with flat crown and long tail. Males have ridiculously long tails, almost as long as their body, often held in a V-shape. Males are glossy black. Females are brown with paler eyebrow and throat. Eyes yellow to white; dusky for immatures. In coastal Texas, where its range overlaps with Boat-tailed Grackle, note habitat (more generalized as opposed to strictly saltmarsh) and pale eye (not brown).
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For more information about identifying birds, we suggest the following websites:
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology