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Field Notes, The Adventures of your bird watching Admin

Enjoying the Boat-tailed Grackle in eastern NC

By Sally Siko

Though they are a common sight along North Carolina’s beaches, I love taking photos of the Boat-tailed Grackles.
I spotted this handsome fella snacking on some sort of crustacean while birding in the OBX this past weekend.
It was neat to watch him pick his way through the seaweed that had washed up on the cove. The waves crashing just inches away, the grackle remained unbothered as it finally found a meal and gulped it down.



Boat-tailed Grackles are a permanent resident of North Carolina boasting a wide range that stretches from the coastline of New York, down into Florida and into east Texas.
They are found almost always near sources of water such as wetlands and coastal marshes, waterfowl impoundments, lakes, rivers, both the Atlantic and Gulf beaches, ponds and mudflats.



These sharp looking members of the blackbird family are omnivorous with a diet of coastal fare that consists of mussels, shrimp, frogs, aquatic insects, snails, crayfish, and even crabs.
 When grabbing a meal away from the water, they will feed on grasshoppers, caterpillars, and the eggs of other birds.
 During the winter months, they will supplement their diet with different kinds of seeds and grain to make up for the protein loss that may occur when their favorite prey becomes scarce in cold weather. This is why you’re likely to see more of them at your feeders in the wintertime if you live on the east coast.
When this happens large flocks can quickly inundate a backyard and go through all the available bird seed in a flash.
For that reason some people consider them pests but I think they are beautiful!

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my mighty mirrorless monster, the @canonusa #R5

Birding Trips and Tours North Carolina

Boat tailed Grackles in SC

Male Boat-tailed Grackles are covered in the most beautiful iridescent plumage I’ve ever seen. When the sunlight hits them at just the right angle, their feathers turn from glossy black to an array of purple, blue and green colors.
Female Boat-tails are lovely too! Dressed in buff brown plumage they are quite striking.
I spotted several of them while birding along Sunset Beach NC earlier this past week. Boat-tailed Grackles also have long, full “v” shaped tails which crease into a wedge shape while in flight, earning them their moniker “boat-tailed”. I really enjoyed watching him hunting for a six legged meal in the trees. The way this one moved methodically along the branches when foraging was neat to watch!


Boat tailed Grackles are a permanent resident of both North and South Carolina boasting a wide range that stretches from the coastline of New York, down into Florida and into east Texas.They are found almost always near sources of water such as wetlands and coastal marshes, waterfowl impoundments, lakes, rivers, both the Atlantic and Gulf beaches, ponds and mudflats.These sharp looking members of the blackbird family are omnivorous with a diet of expected coastal fare that consists of mussels, shrimp, frogs, aquatic insects, snails, crayfish, and even crabs. When grabbing a meal away from the water, they will feed on grasshoppers, caterpillars, and the eggs of other birds.


During the winter months, they will supplement their diet with different kinds of seeds and grain to make up for the protein loss that may occur when their favorite prey becomes scarce in cold weather. This is why you’re likely to see more of them at your feeders in the wintertime if you live on the east coast.

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my mighty mirrorless monster, the @canonusa #R5

Instagram Birding

Spending time with Boat-tailed Grackles on Jennette’s pier in Nags Head NC

Birding Trips and Tours North Carolina, Field Notes

Not your average beach bird: The Boat tailed Grackle in North Carolina

Once we finished birding at the Pea Island Lifesaving Station in the Outer Banks of NC, I said goodbye to my guests and made my way across the short dune path to the parking lot.
Arriving at my truck, I was just about to pack up my camera when this Boat tailed Grackle flew in and landed on the mirror of the SUV across the way.


I couldn’t believe how close he was and was delighted to finally get some clean photos of this handsome bird in decent light.
He was quite curious about the vehicle that he was standing on and kept pecking at the glass and metal.
Better still, every few minutes he’d puff out his feathers and call out loudly to an unseen companion in the reeds nearby.



After spending a few minutes with the first bird, I drove up to Jeannette’s Pier and was greeted with the sight of a whole flock of Grackles perched on the railing.

The neat thing about these pics is that the birds shown here were quite tolerant of my presence on the pier allowing me once again to capture some nice portraits of their faces at a relatively close range.



Boat tailed Grackles are a permanent resident of North Carolina boasting a wide range that stretches from the coastline of New York, down into Florida and into east Texas.
They are found almost always near sources of water such as wetlands and coastal marshes, waterfowl impoundments, lakes, rivers, both the Atlantic and Gulf beaches, ponds and mudflats.

These sharp looking members of the blackbird family are omnivorous with a diet of expected coastal fare that consists of mussels, shrimp, frogs, aquatic insects, snails, crayfish, and even crabs.
When grabbing a meal away from the water, they will feed on grasshoppers, caterpillars, and the eggs of other birds.
During the winter months, they will supplement their diet with different kinds of seeds and grain to make up for the protein loss that may occur when their favorite prey becomes scarce in cold weather. This is why you’re likely to see more of them at your feeders in the wintertime if you live on the east coast.

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc

Birding Trips and Tours North Carolina, Field Notes, Out There with the Expert

Wintertime birding Pea Island NWR: The Boat-tailed grackle

Here’s a couple of birds that I really love seeing and photographing whenever I’m on the coast of NC, Grackles!
I spotted these handsome guys last week while birding on the beach at the Pea Island NWR.



The male Boat-tailed and Common Grackles are covered in the most beautiful iridescent plumage I’ve ever seen. When the sunlight hits them at just the right angle, their feathers turn from glossy black to an array of purple, blue and green colors.


Boat-tailed Grackles (as seen in the first & second pics) have long, full “v” shaped tails which crease in flight, earning them their moniker “boat-tailed”.
I really enjoyed watching him hunting for a meal on the beach. The way this one moved methodically on top of the sand when foraging was neat to watch!

With that striking black plumage Common & Boat-tailed Grackles are easy to pick out from most other birds at the beach, yet I’m often stumped with species ID because this is an area where both birds live year round.
I do know that the easiest way to differentiate the two kinds is Boat-tails are larger than Common Grackles (16 inches long versus 12 inches long).
Plus, Boat -tails have a longer tail (relatively speaking) than that of the Common.
This is all well and good to know but it’s tough to tell sometimes when you don’t have the two species foraging next to one another.
Case in point…

The third and fourth photos below show what I believe to be a Common Grackle feeding on the sound side beach on Pea Island.


I watched him closely poking around in the sand and washed up seaweed for about 5 minutes.
To me, he appeared smaller/leaner than the Boat-tailed I saw on the ocean-side beach.
Sometimes his tail would fan out giving it a fuller appearance but not quite to the degree of the other bird.
Still, I’m not 100% sure if he was a small Boat-tailed or a Common Grackle.


What do you think?
If you have any thoughts on what the bird in the third & fourth photos may be, let me know in the comments below!

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on the fabulous full frame @canonusa
#5Ds