by Martin Hagne
All black, often noisy, and gregarious, all those blackbirds. Some seem smaller, some more brownish, and some are rather large. To most folks, that may be all we notice about them. But there is a world of difference and neat behavior that we can learn about these birds. For one, there are many species from two very distinct groups of birds that make up the blackbird groups.
The largest belong to the corvid group which includes jays, crows, and ravens. The American Crow is the most common corvid along the immediate Upper Texas Coast. The bully of the bird world, as some say, they are big, and often noisy. However, they are arguably one of the smartest birds we have around. American Crows inhabit many of our habitats, including our more suburban areas. They live near the coast in tree lines near the coastal marshland, in the bottomland hardware forests, open farmland, as well as our backyards, but seldom visits the beach fronts. They can make a living in almost any situation. They scavenge and steal, as well as forage for their food. Their diet is made up of a myriad of foods, including earthworms, insects, other small animals, seed, fruit, but also garbage, carrion, and chicks they rob from nests. They are masters at survival.
The American Crows are very social birds and can form large flocks sometimes in the thousands, but we don’t see that here as much. They are also very inquisitive, somewhat mischievous, and very quick learners that can solve problems. They defend what’s theirs aggressively, and don’t fear chasing away larger birds including birds of prey such as hawks and owls.
Then there are the black birds that belong to the icterid group. This is a rather diverse group of birds, including blackbirds, cowbirds, grackles, bobolinks, meadowlarks, and even the colorful orioles. Since we are talking black birds here, we will leave the orioles and meadowlarks out. The most noticeable of these are the Great-tailed Grackles. They are not as large as crows but often mistaken for them. The males are a dark shiny black, often with blue and green sheen to their feathers. Females have more subdued blacks and browns. Their cousins, the Boat-tailed Grackles are very similar but sound a bit different and have dark eyes instead of yellow. Boat-tails are normally only found along the immediate coast and marshes, and not very far inland. Great-tailed can be found everywhere. The Common Grackle is their smaller cousin, which only resides here during the winter months, often in very large noisy flocks. They look similar but about two thirds their size.
To round out this group are the smallest of the is bunch. The most common are the Red-winged Blackbirds with their bright red patch on their upper wing, the aptly named Brown-headed Cowbird with their dull brown heads, and the less common Bronzed Cowbird with their hunchbacked appearance and bright red eyes.
The two cowbird species are considered parasites as they use other bird nests to lay their eggs in, and often let those other birds raise their young. This was not a problem in the past when they naturally followed the roaming buffalo herds, but as buffalo were replaced with stationary cows, cowbirds no longer roam vast areas, and now affect the same birds over and over. This has led to a reduction in songbird populations, and in some areas cowbirds are being manually controlled to save rare or endangered species.
Yellow-headed Blackbirds, have, yes, yellow heads. The females are browner with yellow throats. This species is rare here, and only show up at times in migration or in winter flocks of other black birds.
No matter what people feel about this group of birds, the fact remains that they are smart, resourceful, and highly entertaining. I do love watching them out the window from my office here at Gulf Coast Bird Observatory! Happy New Year!
Photo credit: Mike Williams
Photo caption: An American Crow
