The grackle is the one with the iridescent head, the one flying is a red-winged blackbird. The great variety of blackbirds in Northern Illinois is awfully fun. Grackles fly in large packs and are very smart and efficient at emptying feeders. They also attract a lot of brown-headed cowbirds, which lay their eggs in the grackles nests, and the grackles raise the cowbird babies -- opportunism at its best.
If you look closely at the full-sized original, you can see the grackle has a seed in its mouth.
1 comment:
I think it is cool that I never in a hundred years would have identified those birds as coming from different species. But, when you describe them, it is so obvious. My wife should stop being so lazy all the time and start a photoblog.
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