Common grackles are the motorcycle gangs of the bird world. They swoop into our yard, attacking the suet feeder and often by sunset gobbling up the two cakes I had put in fresh after sunrise.
It’s not unusual to see scores of them at home — a group strutting around the grass while others squabble over the suet and others pounce on the tub feeder perch. European starlings and red-winged blackbirds will sometimes arrive with the grackles. It’s never clear which species spotted the food to be had in my little half-acre, but word spreads quickly.
While females and juvenile male grackles are a drab brown, mature males have a stark beauty, best revealed when sunshine brings out the shimmering iridescence of their heads.
Above, two grackles grapple at my suet feeder. Below, a grackle shows off his colors at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm.
The Jersey Birder 