Female Great-tailed Grackle portrait – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1600, ISO 800, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
I’ve never once played “Angry Birds”, a video game that can be played on multiple devices and platforms, but I’d nominate this female Great-tailed Grackle to be a featured bird in that game just because to my eye she looks angry. She isn’t angry of course, she simply looks that way to some humans.
This female Great-tailed Grackle was the first bird I photographed yesterday and she was so close to me that I opted to take portraits of her in the nice afternoon light at my local pond. I don’t see Great-tailed Grackles all that often here in northern Utah so when I do I like to at least try to get photos of them instead of passing them by because I am focused on and passionate about all wild birds.
I would have liked to have gotten full body images of this female perched on something more natural than a sign but that wasn’t to be, maybe she will stick around and I’ll have another chance with her in my viewfinder again soon. I’d like that.
Life is good.
Mia
Click here to see more of my Great-tailed Grackle photos plus facts and information about this species.
She looks quite brown in this shot, but the male we rsised, Jack, was quite black..can’t remember what the females who lured him away looked like…too long ago…
What a determined looking beauty.
OMGosh, the detail of the feathers is amazing. I have never seen a Great-tailed Grackle.
Great image! But, I’m wondering — could this bird be a jv male? We have a lot of these birds living in the farmlands of southern Arizona and on the female the eye is usually quite a bit darker than that of a male. Also, females have dark crowns. Your bird’s eye strikes me as pretty pale for a female and it doesn’t seem to have a dark crown. I’m not all that familiar with juveniles, so I can’t say for sure, but I’m definitely curious about this bird.
Steven, from what I read on BNA male hatch year birds complete their molt to Basic I plumage by mid to late November so I would think that any hatch year males would show more male plumage characteristics by now and this bird doesn’t show that. The females I see here have eyes about the color of this bird.