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