What bird is this? : Greg Laden's Blog

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What bird is this?

Category: Birds
Posted on: November 20, 2007 9:52 PM, by Greg Laden

Can you name the bird?

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Comments

Is it a Brewer's Blackbird?

Posted by: Michael Barton | November 20, 2007 10:21 PM

a greckle?

Posted by: the real cmfc | November 20, 2007 11:50 PM

Rusty blackbird?

Posted by: Tophe | November 21, 2007 1:18 AM

It's a goddam starling or one of near relatives (mynah, perhaps?)

It might help if you told us where it came from.

But it is intelligent, omnivorous, social, communicative, and all the rest of the crap that continually gets trotted out to show why we humans have spread as much (and been as temporarily successful) as the starling and sparrow families.

Posted by: Richard Parker | November 21, 2007 1:30 AM

Looks like a long-tail grackle to me.

Posted by: Brian | November 21, 2007 6:07 AM

I would say it is a common grackle (IE purple grackle) I think a greckle was a monetary unit used in Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Posted by: DouglasG | November 21, 2007 10:12 AM

I too think it's a grackle. I just saw some great-tailed grackles in Texas, and this one resembles them, but I think it's a common grackle.

Posted by: The Ridger | November 21, 2007 6:27 PM

It looks like a Carib Grackle to me.

Posted by: sailor | November 21, 2007 6:37 PM

It looks like a robin. A melanistic robin. Unless it's a European blackbird, which is closely related. It doesn't (quite) look like any sort of grackle to me. Of course, I haven't seen any grackles here in the state of Washington; I don't think grackles exist around here. But when I lived in Texas, I saw a lot of grackles, and though the coloring is right, it just doesn't look right! It could be a starling, though. I've seen lots of those!
Anne G

Posted by: Anne Gilbert | November 21, 2007 9:34 PM

I believe it is a Cape Glossy Starling, Lamprotornis nitens.

It could be a Miombo blue-eared starling, but that would be very rare where this bird was seen, in South Africa.

Posted by: Greg Laden | November 27, 2007 6:59 AM

Anne G is right, now I think about it. The legs are wrong for a grackle. And the neck. I don't know what it is.

Posted by: The Ridger | November 28, 2007 8:28 PM

I reckon its a Blue Eared Glossy Starling

Posted by: Peregrine Craig Nash | November 29, 2007 7:51 AM