Great-tailed Grackle
Quiscalus mexicanus · Blackbirds & Orioles
Great-tailed Grackle, female
San Diego, 6 March 2026
A female Great-tailed Grackle in a San Diego park, considerably smaller and browner than the glossy black male, with the long wedge-shaped tail the species is named for still evident even folded.
The species has expanded its range dramatically north and west over the past century, following irrigation and urban development into country it never historically reached; San Diego was outside its range as recently as the mid-twentieth century. This bird's eye reads as dark rather than the pale yellow of an adult female, which usually points to a younger bird still working through its first plumage, though without a clearer view it is difficult to be certain.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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