Sightings May 27 Common Grackle

Twice today I have spooked a male Common Grackle coming to eat Purina Dog Chow from a bowl I have on my back patio here in Old Jefferson.  They do that every nesting season, sometimes in small flocks.

Common Grackles have an interesting geographic variation- birds in the northwestern half of Louisiana have bronze gloss on their backs and green on their heads.  Birds near Lake Pontchartrain (including New Orleans) have purple gloss on the head, and green on the back.  In between are intergrades that tend to have purple heads and-oddly- purplish backs.  Some of the intergrades presumably wander into our area as well.  The US is split between these two types overall, with the blending zone stretching from here up to New Jersey.