PURPLE (common) GRACKLE
PR

The purple grackle is very similar to the crow, wearing the same color plumage and having many of the bad habits of its larger counterpart. The hard yellow eyes of the bird are never still as it struts about like a pompous actor on the stage. At a distance, the grackle seems jet black all over, but when the sun strikes its feathers, they take on a hue of steel blue or royal purple.

The grackle is not popular with its bird neighbors. It has a distinct propensity for devouring eggs and young taken from other nests, and this habit is enough to cause all birds to unite against him.

In early spring, he and his mate build a loose structure of twigs and grasses high in a fork or on a branch of a conifer. Four to six eggs are laid; when the young hatch, they are ardently guarded by the adult birds.

A sure sign that fall is on the way appears in early August when the grackles come together in flocks numbering in the thousands. Then havoc occurs in corn and wheat fields as the birds descend to pillage the crops.

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