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Boat-tailed Grackle

A female Boat-tailed Grackle stands in the grass, looking towards the right, with blurred trees visible behind her. She is brown, with a black beak and dark eyes.

This Boat-tailed Grackle was standing in the grass not too far from a lake. She's a female, a fact given away by her brown feathers. Although not as brightly colored as a cardinal or a blue jay, I thought the way she posed here looked elegant. I was happy to see that James J. Audubon started the entry for the Boat-tailed Grackle on plate 187 with "This elegant bird..." (para. 1).[1]


Male Boat-tailed Grackles are mostly black. I say mostly because as you can see below, up close, the male's feathers reveal tinges of blues and teals, sleek and shimmery like a fish. This bird was hanging out at a different park, also near a lake.  

A male Boat-tailed Grackle sits on a branch, looking downwards. It is a black-ish bird, though it is tinged with shiny blues and teals.

Water is important to the Boat-tailed Grackle. Marshes and swamps are where these birds breed and often nest.[2] They nest in colonies, and female Boat-tailed Grackles build the nests by themselves.[3] The females also incubate and feed the babies entirely on their own. Even the babies show pluck: the Cornell Lab of Ornithology says the fledglings can swim for a while if they accidentally fall in the water.[4]

Eventually, the females and young birds join up again with the males.[5] And the male Boat-tailed Grackles have flair, showing off and threatening other birds by thrusting their necks into the air.[3] It looks like a ballet pose. The Audubon page has a great picture by Jerry Golub in the Photo Gallery.

But with all that said, my favorite thing about Boat-tailed Grackles is their song. Take a listen in this video by Gregory Griffith on the Cornell Lab's McCaulay Library.[6] It's non-elegant, clanky, and fun (I like the part where it makes a sound like a clacker toy)—the kind of song you might expect for a bird named grackle.

The Details: 

Common Name: Boat-tailed Grackle
Scientific Name: Quiscalus major
Family: Icteridae
Seen: In the grass not too far from a lake (Female) & On a branch near a lake (Male)
Month: September 2023 (Female) & November 2023 (Male)
Range: The Boat-tailed Grackle can be found all year in Florida, including in the middle of the state.[7] In several other southern and eastern states, it can be found along the coastline. Its range dips slightly into Texas (including, for part of the year, a non-breeding population) and as far north as New York. You can view a helpful range map on the Cornell Lab's website.

Learn More About Boat-Tailed Grackles:

  1. Audubon. (n.d.). Plate 187: Boat-tailed Grackle. [Note: Courtesy of the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove, Montgomery County Audubon Collection, and Zebra Publishing]
  2. Texas A&M AgriLife Research. (n.d.). Boat-Tailed Grackle.
  3. Audubon. (n.d.). Boat-Tailed Grackle. [Note: The website says the text was adapted from Lives of North American Birds by Kenn Kaufman© 1996]
  4. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. (n.d.). Boat-Tailed Grackle: Overview. All About Birds.
  5. Pearson, T. G. (Ed.). (1940). Birds of America. Garden City Publishing Company. 
  6. Griffith, G. (1994, December). Boat-Tailed Grackle: ML435412 [Video]. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Macaulay Library.
  7. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. (n.d.). Boat-tailed Grackl: Range map. All About Birds.
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