Common Grackle

Table

Common Grackle – Accepted
1. 20 Nov 1967	AHY	vic. El Cajon SD	1987-357	14	SDSU 2092
2. 21–26 May 1975		Furnace Creek Ranch INY	1976-029	3	ph., AB 29:911, Roberson (1980)
3. 10–11 Oct 1975		Arcata HUM	1985-124	10
4. 30 Apr 1976		Morongo Valley SBE	1976-038	3	no photo at SDNHM contra AB 30:893
5. 09 Feb–26 Mar 1977		Carlsbad SD	1977-002	4	ph., Roberson (1980)
6. 28 May 1977		Scotty’s Castle INY	1977-077	4	ph., Roberson (1980)
7. 30 May–08 Jun 1977		Deep Springs INY	1977-059	4
8. 22 May 1979		Scotty’s Castle INY	1980-121	6	ph.
9. 25 May 1979		West Pittsburg CC	1979-027	5
10. 24–26 May 1980		Furnace Creek Ranch INY	1980-077	6
11. 07–08 Nov 1980		Smith R. bottoms DN	1980-187	7
12. 23 May 1983		Furnace Creek Ranch INY	1986-429	12
13. 24–30 May 1984		Baker SBE	1984-099	9
14. 13–16 Jun 1984		Pt. Reyes MRN	1984-094	9
15. 11 Oct 1984		Iron Mtn. Pumping Plant SBE	1996-139	22	ph.
16. 10–12 Jun 1986		Deep Springs INY	1986-374	11
17. 12 Apr 1987		McGee Creek MNO	1987-127	14
18. 24 May 1987		Oasis MNO	1987-140	16	one of two reported
19. 14 Nov 1987		Baker SBE	1988-056	13
20. 29 Dec 1987–02 Mar 1988		Santa Barbara SBA	1988-046	13	ph.
21. 21–22 May 1988		Pt. Reyes MRN	1988-124	13	ph.
22. 22–23 May 1988		Furnace Creek Ranch INY	1988-147	13
23. 10–12 Nov 1988		Crescent City DN	1988-268	13
24. 12 Nov 1989		Indian Ranch INY	1989-151	15
25. 24 Sep 1990		Smith R. mouth DN	1990-235	16
26. 12 Dec 1990		Fish Springs INY	1991-050	16	ph.
27. 17–18 Oct 1991		Furnace Creek Ranch INY	1992-008	17	ph.
28. 15 Nov 1991		Furnace Creek Ranch INY	1991-214	17	ph., AB 46:152
29. 16 Feb–29 Mar 1992		Big Pine INY	1992-093	17	ph.
30. 23 Apr 1992		Pt. Loma SD	1992-202	18
31. 07 Nov 1992		Big Pine INY	1992-300	18
32. 29 Nov 1992	HY	Stovepipe Wells INY	1993-035	18	ph.
33. 17 Apr 1993		Cottonwood Spring RIV	1993-073	20
34. 29 May 1994		Panamint Springs INY	1994-123	20	ph.
35. 29 Oct 1994		Galileo Hill KER	1994-164	20	ph.
36. 25 Oct 1995		Canebrake KER	1996-060	22
37. 24–25 Oct 1996		Iron Mtn. Pumping Plant SBE	1997-029	23
38. 03–24 Mar 1997		Torrance LA	1997-086	23	ph., one of two reported
39. 15 Nov 1997		Rohnert Park SON	1999-101	24	SSU 1985
40. 14 Dec 1997		Bishop INY	1998-064	23	ph.
41. 21 Jan–15 Feb 1998		Wildomar RIV	1998-041	24	video, audio
42. 27 Mar–11 Apr 1998		Twentynine Palms SBE	1998-061	24	audio
43. 21 Apr 1998		vic. Pt. Sur MTY	1998-089	24	ph.
44. 13 Sep 1998		Bishop INY	1998-211	24	ph., audio
45. 02 Oct 1998		Cow Creek INY	2001-048	25
46. 03 Jan–04 Mar 1999		Lompoc SBA	1999-100	25	ph.
47. 01 Mar 1999		vic. Kettleman City KIN	1999-079	25
48. 24 Apr 1999		Panamint Springs INY	1999-094	25
49-52. 02 Jan–10 Mar 2000	4	Long Beach LA	2000-003	28	Fig. 443, ph., four of six reported
53. 14 Apr 2000		Butterfield Ranch SD	2000-092	26	ph.
54. 16 Nov 2000		vic. Pt. Sur MTY	2000-163	26	ph., one of two reported
55. 19 Nov–08 Dec 2000	HY	Southeast Farallon I. SF	2001-031	26
56. 24 May–11 June 2001		Encino LA	2001-094	27	ph.
57. 15–18 Dec 2001		vic. Rovana INY	2002-043	27
58. 23 Dec 2001–20 Jan 2002		Guerneville SON	2001-227	27	ph.
59. 03 Nov 2002		Panamint Springs INY	2002-189	28
60-62. 30 Dec 2002–19 Jan 2003		Los Angeles LA	2003-034	28	ph., three of five reported
63. 30 Jan–06 Feb 2003		Tulelake SIS	2003-023	29	ph.
64. 26 Apr–04 May 2003		Sepulveda Basin LA	2003-042	29
65. 13 Nov 2003		Independence INY	2003-193	29
66. 28 Nov 2003–14 Jan 2004		Arcata bottoms HUM	2003-173	29	video
Common Grackle – Not accepted, identification not established
01 Jun 1975		Pt. Reyes MRN	1975-026	3
13 Oct 1977		Hayward ALA	1978-010	5
09 Oct 1979		Furnace Creek Ranch INY	1986-288	11
13 May 1984		California City KER	1984-254	10	ph.
31 May 1986		Modoc NWR MOD	1994-086	19
04 Aug 1986		Los Banos MER	1986-335	12
24 May 1987		Oasis MNO	1987-140	16	see table entry 18
20 May 1988	2	Pacifica SM	1988-288	13
10 Jul 1988		Crescent City DN	1988-264	13
16 Nov 1988	12	vic. Oceanside SD	1989-073	13
10–14 May 1989		Mono Lake County Park MNO	1993-084	17
08–12 Jun 1989	2	Riverdale FRE	1989-074	15	nesting
22–27 Aug 1993	2	Modoc NWR MOD	1993-130	19
29 Sep 1993		vic. Bishop INY	1993-186	21,26
24–26 Jan 1994		Capitola SCZ	1994-069	22
28 May 1996		Furnace Creek Ranch INY	1996-089	22	ph.
11 May 1998		Honey Lake Wildlife Area LAS	1998-074	24
17 Oct 1998		Panamint Springs INY	1999-063	24
08 May–05 Jul 1999		Santa Maria SBA/SLO	1999-122	25	ph., probable Great-tailed Grackle × Brewer’s Blackbird
22 Oct 2000		Los Banos MER	2000-135	26
09–11 May 2002		Klamath River SIS	2002-136	28
18–26 May 2002		Big Sur R. mouth MTY	2002-118	29
18 Oct–21 Jan 2004		Smith R. bottoms DN	2003-163	30
Common Grackle – Not submitted
19 Jun–09 Jul 1979		vic. Blythe RIV		14	Rosenberg et al. (1991)
21 May 1980		Deep Springs INY			AB 34:817
23–29 May 1984		Iron Mtn. Pumping Plant SBE			AB 38:966
21 May 1988		California City KER		14	AB 42:483
16–17 May 1996		Crescent City DN			Harris (2006)
17–24 Mar 1997		Torrance LA			FN 51:929, see table entry 38
13 May 1997		Pt. Loma SD			FN 51:929
29 May 1999		Modoc NWR MOD			NAB 53:327 (“banded”)
16 Nov 2000		vic. Pt. Sur MTY			NAB 55:100, Roberson (2002), see table entry 54
29 Dec 2000+	2	Long Beach LA			NAB 55:229; see table entries 49-52
26 Mar–11 May 2003		Smith R. bottoms DN			Harris (2006)
fall 2003		Monte Rio SON			NAB 58:279

Figures

Figure 443. This male Common Grackle—one of four present 2 January–10 March 2000 at El Dorado Park in Long Beach, Los Angeles County—was photographed on 3 January (2000-003; Larry Sansone).

Figure 444. Accepted records of the Common Grackle in California through 2003. The frequency of occurrence has steadily increased since the mid 1970s.

Figure 445. Three-fourths of the Common Grackles recorded in California have been transients, split equally between spring (peaking in late May) and fall (peaking in early November). The remaining records come from the winter period (peaking in January).

Figure 446. Distribution of 66 Common Grackles accepted through 2003. Best represented is Inyo County.

Common Grackle

COMMON GRACKLE Quiscalus quiscula (Linnaeus, 1758)

Accepted: 66 (64%)	Treated in Appendix H: yes
Not accepted: 37	CBRC review: all records
Not submitted/reviewed: 13	Color image: none

This icterid’s range has been expanding westward for the past several decades. The northern breeding limit of the Bronzed Grackle, Q. q. versicolor, extends from the southwestern Northwest Territories east across central and southern Canada to southwestern Newfoundland. The western breeding limit follows the Rocky Mts. south to northwestern New Mexico and from there cuts southeast through Texas to the Gulf of Mexico. Breeding has occurred casually in Nevada, southern Idaho, and Washington. Birds of northern and western populations are migratory, moving to southern and eastern parts of the United States for the winter, some of them reaching parts of Texas that lie south of the breeding range. Nova Scotia supports the most northerly resident population. Transients and wintering birds occur casually west to central Alaska and Yukon and along the Pacific slope from southern British Columbia to central Baja California. A record from Denmark probably pertains to an escapee. Subspecies quiscula, the Purple Grackle, is resident in the Southeast, and Q. q. stonei occurs as a resident and short-distance migrant from central Louisiana northeast to Connecticut (casually to New Brunswick). Some intermixing of these taxa occurs, and neither is a promising candidate for vagrancy to California.

California’s first Common Grackle, collected on 20 November 1967 near El Cajon in San Diego County, remained misidentified as a Brewer’s Blackbird until after the state’s second record in 1975 (Roberson 1993). The species’ rate of occurrence in the state has steadily increased through the years (Figure 444), and the seasonality of these records has also shifted over time. Spring vagrants account for 15 of the first 22 records (68%) but only 10 of the last 44 (23%). Known wintering birds account just four of the first 45 records (9%) but 12 of the last 21 (57%).

In the East spring migration peaks in late February and early March, and fall migration extends through early December (Peer and Bollinger 1997), a migration schedule that can complicate efforts to distinguish between wintering birds and transients in California. The state’s 50 accepted records of known or likely transients are evenly split between spring (1 March–16 June, peaking in the latter half of May) and fall (13 September–18 December, peaking in the first half of November); see Figure 445. Inyo County alone claims nearly half the records of known or likely migrants (22 of 50). All but three of the state’s 16 known or likely winter records (28 November–29 March) come from the coastal slope, including groups of four and three in Los Angeles County since 2000. See also Appendix H.

The CBRC has not accepted a fairly high percentage of Common Grackle reports, often because the documentation failed to eliminate the possibility of a Great-tailed Grackle—particularly the smaller subspecies nelsoni (see Wehtje 2001)—or a Great-tailed Grackle × Brewer’s Blackbird. Males giving the appearance of this hybrid combination were documented 8 May–5 July 1999 in Santa Maria, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties (Rogers and Jaramillo 2002) and in central Baja California 5–8 October 2005 (NAB 60:146). Important distinguishing marks of the Bronzed Grackle—especially the strong contrast between purplish/blue head and bronzy wings and body, plus details of the tail and bill—receive competent treatment in the current generation of field guides.