It is grackle season in many areas of Texas, which involves area grocery stores being invaded by huge numbers of the large black birds.
KXAN reported that the birds like grocery store parking lots and the side of major roads, and they can travel in flocks of hundreds, or even thousands. According to Jessica Yorzinski, who researches grackles at Texas A&M, most of the birds migrate to central Texas during the winter months, but there are some who are there all year. The report adds that grackles roost in large groups during the winter months and can often be seen in trees and on power lines. Yorzinski said that grackles are common in grocery store parking areas because of their attraction to light.
“Welcome to grackle season at your neighborhood grocery store parking lot. Did you know that grackles can move each eye independently from the other one? Now you do,” Austin Mayor Steve Adler tweeted.
Common Grackles are blackbirds that look slightly stretched out as they are both taller and longer tailed, according to allaboutbirds.org. They also have a longer and more tapered bill, with “glossy-iridescent bodies.” The birds have long legs and gather in lawns and fields, as well as in high trees that are usually evergreen. They can also be noisy. Grackles eat crops like corn, but they also eat garbage and just about anything they can get their beak on.
The site provides backyard tips regarding grackles, which often like to go to bird feeders. It is recommended to set up a bird feeder in the yard with a variety of grain and seeds. It also said spreading seed on the ground helps to let smaller birds feed, but that also can attract rodents so the recommendation is to sprinkle just enough for one bird at a time.
Allaboutbirds.org said that grackles are a top threat to corn, as they eat opening corn and corn sprouts. With that, huge flocks of grackles can end up being a multimillion dollar problem.
The bird is also a forager that can catch invertebrates and mice, while also catching small fish, stealing worms from American Robins, raiding nests and even killing and eating adult birds.
When the grackles forage and roost with large flocks of several types of blackbird, the flocks can go into the millions.
