What bird is this?

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Can you name the bird?

More like this

a greckle?

By the real cmfc (not verified) on 20 Nov 2007 #permalink

Rusty blackbird?

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.

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

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.

It looks like a Carib Grackle to me.

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

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.