Dear Grackle,
WHY DO YOU KEEP SHOUTING AT US!?! Also, how can you tell the difference between a grackle, a crow and a raven? And is a blackbird a real bird? Or do people just call any bird that is black a blackbird?
- Curious mind
Dear Curious,
You’d have to ask the editors about the choice to use all caps, but I assume it’s because I’m loud! [Editor’s note: our choice to use all caps is indeed because the grackle is loud.]
I’m flattered that you think we look like the handsome corvids. Grackles, crows and ravens all belong to the same order, Passeriformes, meaning perching birds, but we’re in different families. Grackles belong to the family Icteridae, which also includes orioles, meadowlarks and cowbirds. Crows and ravens belong to the family Corvidae, which also includes jays and magpies. Grackles are smaller than crows and ravens, and we’re sexually dimorphic, while both sexes of crows and ravens look about the same.
When it comes to blackbirds, things get a little hairier (featherier)? In the U.S., “blackbird" is the common name for some songbirds in the family Icteridae, including grackles, red-winged blackbirds and brewer’s blackbird. In fact, the family Icteridae is sometimes referred to as the New World blackbirds (but it’s not a great descriptor — just consider the Altamira oriole, a bright orange Icterid). In Europe and Asia, “blackbird” is more likely to refer to a black thrush in the family Turdidae called the Eurasian blackbird. People say the Eurasian blackbird, which Paul McCartney heard singing in India, inspired the lyrics for the Beatles song Blackbird. Whatever. We all know that song is about the very best "blackbird,” the great-tailed grackle!
Yours,
Grackle
