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BC Conservation Data Centre: Species Summary


Quiscalus quiscula
Common Grackle

 
Scientific Name: Quiscalus quiscula (Linnaeus, 1758)
English Name: Common Grackle
 
Classification / Taxonomy
Scientific Name - Concept Reference: American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. [as modified by subsequent supplements and corrections published in The Auk]. Also available online: http://www.aou.org/.
Classification Level: Species
Species Group: Vertebrate Animal
Species Code: B-COGR
Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family
Animalia Craniata Aves Passeriformes Icteridae
   
Conservation Status / Legal Designation
Global Status: G5 (Apr 2016)
Provincial Status: S4S5B (Mar 2015)
BC List: Yellow
Provincial FRPA list:   
Provincial Wildlife Act:
COSEWIC Status:
SARA Schedule:
General Status Canada: 4 - Secure (2005)
Migratory Bird Convention Act:
   
Ecology & Life History
General Description:
Global Reproduction Comments: Clutch size 4-7 (commonly 5-6). Sometimes 2 broods per year. Incubation 12-14 days, by female. Young tended by both sexes, leave nest at 10-17 days, remain in nest vicinity 2-3 days. Nests usually in loose colonies.
Global Ecology Comments: Roosts communally in large flocks (sometimes >100,000 individuals), in summer and fall in northeastern U.S.; often with starlings (Caccamise et al. 1983). Mean dispersal distance 21 kilometers for males, 15 kilometers for females (Moore and Dolbeer 1989).
Migration Characteristics:
(Global / Provincial)		 
    Nonmigrant:
    Local Migrant:
    Distant Migrant:
    Within Borders Migrant: 		Y /
Y /
Y /
na /
Global Migration Comments: Northern interior breeding populations make the longest migrations. Arrives in northern U.S., western states, and Canada mid-March to early April (Terres 1980).
Habitats:
(Type / Subtype / Dependence)
Global Habitat Comments: BREEDING: Partly open situations with scattered trees, open woodland, forest edge, marsh edges, islands, swamp thickets, coniferous groves, cities, suburbs, farms.

Nests in deciduous or coniferous trees up to 18 m above ground, also shrubs, roadside plantings, swamp vegetation, natural cavities, marshes. NON-BREEDING: In migration and winter also in open situations, cultivated lands, fields.
Food Habits: Carnivore: Adult, Immature
Frugivore: Adult, Immature
Granivore: Adult, Immature
Invertivore: Adult, Immature
Global Food Habits Comments: Eats various invertebrates, grain, seeds, fruits, sometimes small vertebrates and bird eggs; forages on ground, in shrubs and trees, and in shallow water (Terres 1980). In North Dakota, insects dominate the diet in spring; grains increased in the diet in summer and dominated the diet in late summer and early fall (1994, Am. Midl. Nat. 131:381-385).
Global Phenology: Diurnal: Adult, Immature
Provincial Phenology:
(1st half of month/
2nd half of month)
Colonial Breeder: N
Length(cm)/width(cm)/Weight(g): 32/ / 127
Elevation (m) (min / max): Global: 
Provincial: 
   
 
Distribution
Endemic: N
Global Range Comment: BREEDS: northeastern British Columbia and southern Mackenzie to Newfoundland, south to southern Texas, Gulf Coast, and southern Florida, west to Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. WINTERS: Kansas, southern Great Lakes region, New England and Nova Scotia south to southeastern New Mexico, south Texas, Gulf Coast, Florida.
 
Authors / Contributors
Global Information Author: HAMMERSON, G., MINOR REVISIONS BY S. CANNINGS
Last Updated: Dec 13, 1994
Provincial Information Author:
Last Updated:
   
References and Related Literature
American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1983. Check-list of North American Birds, 6th edition. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas. 877 pp.
Bent, A.C. 1958. Life histories of North American blackbirds, orioles, tanagers, and their allies. U.S. National Museum Bulletin 211. Washington, DC.
Bjorklund, M. 1991. Evolution, phylogeny, sexual dimorphism and mating system in the grackles (QUISCALUS spp.: Icterinae). Evolution 45:608-621.
Caccamise, D. F., L. A. Lyon, and J. Fischl. 1983. Seasonal patterns in roosting flocks of starlings and common grackles. Condor 85:474-481.
Campbell, R.W., N.K. Dawe, I.McT.-Cowan, J.M. Cooper, G. Kaiser, A.C. Stewart, and M.C.E. McNall. 2001. The Birds of British Columbia, Vol. 4, Passerines: Wood-Warblers through Old World Sparrows. UBC Press, in cooperation with Environ. Can., Can. Wildl. Serv., and B.C. Minist. Environ., Lands and Parks, Wildl. Branch and Resour. Inventory Branch, and Royal B.C. Mus. 744pp.
Cummings, J. L., J. L. Guarino, and C. E. Knittle. 1989. Chronology of blackbird damage to sunflowers. Wildl. Soc. Bull. 17:50-52.
Droege, S., and J.R. Sauer. 1990. North American Breeding Bird Survey, annual summary, 1989. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Biological Report 90(8). 22 pp.
Glahn, J. F., et al. 1991. Impact of roost control on local urban and agricultural blackbird problems. Wildl. Soc. Bull. 19:511-522.
Harrison, C. 1978. A Field Guide to the Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of North American Birds. Collins, Cleveland, Ohio.
Harrison, H. H. 1979. A field guide to western birds' nests. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 279 pp.
Moore, W. S., and R. A. Dolbeer. 1989. The use of banding recovery data to estimate dispersal rates and gene flow in avian species: case studies in the Red-winged Blackbird and Common Grackle. Condor 91:242-253.
Nelms, C. O., et al. 1994. Population estimates of breeding blackbirds in North Dakota, 1967, 1981-1982, and 1990. Am. Midl. Nat. 132:256-263.
Terres, J. K. 1980. The Audubon Society encyclopedia of North American birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
Zink, R. M., W. L. Rootes, and D. L. Dittman. 1991c. Mitochondrial DNA variation, population structure, and evolution of the common grackle (QUISCALUS QUISCALA). Condor 93:318-329.
 

Please visit the website Conservation Status Ranks for definitions of the data fields used in this summary report.

Suggested Citation:

B.C. Conservation Data Centre. 1994. Species Summary: Quiscalus quiscula. B.C. Minist. of Environment. Available: https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/ (accessed Apr 23, 2024).