Great-tailed Grackle Images, Facts and Information:
Quiscalus mexicanus
- Great-tailed Grackles are large, noisy blackbirds with long tails and long, sturdy bills. Males have yellow eyes, glossy black plumage with blue to purple iridescence. Females are about half the size of males and are a rich brown.
- The range of Great-tailed Grackles is very rapidly expanding, historically they were found as far north as southern Texas, I have seen them now as far north as southern Montana.
- Great-tailed Grackles eat grains, fruits, and in summer they will eat insects, bees, wasps, snails, worms, slugs, moths, small mammals, frogs, lizards, fish, bird eggs and nestlings. They will also eat food dropped in urban areas.
- Their preferred habitats include fields, marshes, agricultural and urban areas, farmyards, feedlots, forests, chaparral, parks and neighborhood lawns in the southwest, Texas, the Great Plains and now the Great Basin up towards Montana then south into Mexico and Central America.
- Great-tailed Grackles lay 3 to 4 eggs which take 13 to 14 days to hatch. The female incubates.
- Great-tailed Grackles can live up to 13 years.
I hope you enjoy viewing my Great-tailed Grackle photos.
Male Great-tailed Grackle solo display
Title: Male Great-tailed Grackle solo display
Location: Salt Lake County, Utah
Date: 3/15/2022
Male Great-tailed Grackle duo displaying
Title: Male Great-tailed Grackle duo displaying
Location: Salt Lake County, Utah
Date: 3/15/2022
Female Great-tailed Grackle close up
Title: Female Great-tailed Grackle close up
Location: Salt Lake County, Utah
Date: 12/25/2021
Male Great-tailed Grackle in winter
Title: Male Great-tailed Grackle in winter
Location: Salt Lake County, Utah
Date: 1/14/2021
Male Great-tailed Grackle portrait with grass in the background
Title: Male Great-tailed Grackle portrait with grass in the background
Location: Salt Lake County, Utah
Date: 10/28/2019
Male Great-tailed Grackle portrait with sky in the background
Title: Male Great-tailed Grackle portrait with sky in the background
Location: Salt Lake County, Utah
Date: 10/28/2019
Great-tailed Grackle close up
Title: Great-tailed Grackle close up
Location: Salt Lake County, Utah
Date: 12/20/2018
Female Great-tailed Grackle portrait
Title: Female Great-tailed Grackle portrait
Location: Salt Lake County, Utah
Date: 11/19/2018
Male Great-tailed Grackle in low light horizontal crop
Title: Male Great-tailed Grackle in low light horizontal crop
Location: Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah
Date: 5/23/2018
Male Great-tailed Grackle in low light
Title: Male Great-tailed Grackle in low light
Location: Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah
Date: 5/23/2018
Great-tailed Grackle male
Title: Great-tailed Grackle male
Location: Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah
Date: 5/3/2010
Great-tailed Grackle male on a fence post
Title: Great-tailed Grackle male on a fence post
Location: Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah
Date: 5/3/2010
Male Great-tailed Grackle
Title: Male Great-tailed Grackle
Location: Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah
Date: 5/28/2009