A Plague of Birds

A week ago Jill spied a ginormous flock of birds flying from the southwest to the north, northeast.  It continued for a seemingly endless period of time as the flock appeared to be undefined as to limit.  After a long time it eventually diminished to a trickle and stopped.  

We puzzled that it was birds of a feather flocking together to commence their migration.  They were dark-colored birds yet too distant to identify with any certainty.  That is - until - we found several dozen photos taken over a thirty minute time frame on the northern-most trail camera. 

click on the image for a closer look

 Meet Quiscalus quiscula – the common grackle.

Named after its raspy call it is derived from the Latin word graculus – meaning to cough.  This is a member of the Icterid family of New World blackbirds which includes red-wing blackbirds, orioles, meadowlarks,  bobolinks and cowbirds.  These are large birds with an iridescent blue head, brown body, long black tail and golden eyes. They nest in large colonies and travel in large flocks. In flight their large tail trails behind and they fly straight and level as opposed to an undulating flight pattern.

These birds are opportunistic foragers. They are known to follow plows to catch invertebrates, wade into shallow water to catch small fish, steal unattended food at a picnic, rob a robin of a worm, tear-up your garbage and raid the nests of other birds to slay and eat both the young and adults. The grackle is the number one threat to corn. They eat corn as it sprouts in the soil and ripening corn on the stalk. Because these birds congregate in large flocks they can make a big impact on corn yields.

The large flocks of these birds are called an ‘annoyance’ or ‘plague.’

The birds we spotted migrate this time of year to southern states although the breeding range for this and multiple subspecies extends from Canada, the United States, Mexico and Central America.

An ever-vigilant trail camera solved a vexing puzzle that plagued us for a while.....