Some of the more common birds we see here in Texas are the grackles. You can hardly walk through a supermarket parking lot without seeing one of these brown or black birds peering out at you from ...

The next time you walk out of a grocery store to find your freshly waxed car spotted with white blobs of bird poop and curse the glossy obsidian-hued birds nesting on a power line above your head, I ...

Across North America, grackles are virtuosos of adaptation. The small- to medium-sized New World blackbirds are particularly social and known for foraging skills that help them flourish in ...

Failing that, perhaps we could find some regal Houston designation for the grackle. Consider this excerpt from B.C. Robison’s “Birds of Houston”: “Common grackles assemble in flocks in open areas such ...

Like something out of a Hitchcock horror movie, they look and sound intimidating as they hunker down in seemingly infinite flocks. Perched on trees and utility lines, they cackle and wheeze and ...