Common Grackles are back, looking for summer real estate and significantly increasing the noise level in our trees and marshes. Their strange name comes from its Latin root, “Gracula,” which is thought to have been coined to imitate one of the sounds made by the birds.
Many call these birds “Blackbirds”; however, in the right light, the males can glow with iridescent hues of purple, blue, and bronze. Grackles apparently will eat anything that looks like it has nutrients, including smaller birds and parts of food-caked wrappers. (Brooklin, Maine)