Common Grackle
Quiscalus quiscula · Blackbirds & Orioles
Common Grackle
Green-Wood Cemetery, 25 April 2026
A Common Grackle on the lawn at Green-Wood, a bird of open ground and town across the eastern half of the continent, and one of the most abundant birds in North America. It walks rather than hops, and it will eat almost anything, which is why it does so well among people.
Plumage that reads as plain black from a distance resolves at close range into an iridescent wash of bronze, purple and blue-green, shifting with the angle of the light rather than coming from any pigment. The long, keel-shaped tail, folded into a shallow V here, is a reliable mark that separates it from every other blackbird on the lawn.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield. Every photograph comes with notes on what it is.
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