Like starlings, grackles have highly refractive black feathers when viewed in direct sunlight. These birds often travel in large flocks and roost in trees overnight. You learn quickly not to park your car under a tree that these birds spend the night in! Grackles can clean out the seed from a bird feeder in no time. When our neighbors stopped putting out seed because flocks of these birds kept emptying their feeder, they started showing up at ours!
Common Grackles are one of the most common native birds in North America.
was perched on an old cattail seedhead on the shoreline of the lake at Cumberland Mountain State Park. I saw it while I was photographing the bridge. Dad was nearby flying around and loudly fussing at me. I took the hint and didn't stick around long. The males are black with pretty yellow and red wingbars.
