Grackle

Grackles is the common name of any of 11

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

birds (10 extant and one extinct) native to North and South America. They belong to various genera in the icterid family. In all the species with this name, adult males have black or mostly black plumage. Baby birds like to feed by screeching. * Genus ''

Quiscalus The avian genus ''Quiscalus'' contains seven of the 11 species of grackles, gregarious passerine birds in the icterid family. They are native to North and South America. The genus was named and described by French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierr ...

'' **

Boat-tailed grackle The boat-tailed grackle (''Quiscalus major'') is a passerine bird of the family Icteridae found as a permanent resident on the coasts of the Southeastern United States. Habitat The boat-tailed grackle is found in coastal saltwater marshes and, i ...

, ''Quiscalus major'' **

Common grackle The common grackle (''Quiscalus quiscula'') is a species of large icterid bird found in large numbers through much of North America. First described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus, the common grackle has three subspecies. Adult common grackles have a ...

, ''Quiscalus quiscula'' **

Great-tailed grackle The great-tailed grackle or Mexican grackle (''Quiscalus mexicanus'') is a medium-sized, highly social passerine bird native to North and South America. A member of the family Icteridae, it is one of 10 extant species of grackle and is closely r ...

, ''Quiscalus mexicanus'' **

Nicaraguan grackle The Nicaraguan grackle (''Quiscalus nicaraguensis'') is a species of passerine bird belonging to the genus ''Quiscalus'', a genus of grackles in the New World blackbird family, Icteridae. It is found only in Nicaragua and northernmost Costa Rica. ...

, ''Quiscalus nicaraguensis'' **

Greater Antillean grackle The Greater Antillean grackle (''Quiscalus niger'') is a grackle found throughout the Greater Antilles as well as smaller, nearby islands. Like all ''Quiscalus'' grackles, it is a rather large, gregarious bird. It lives largely in heavily settl ...

, ''Quiscalus niger'' **

Carib grackle The Carib grackle (''Quiscalus lugubris'') is a New World tropical blackbird, a resident breeder in the Lesser Antilles and northern South America east of the Andes, from Colombia east to Venezuela and northeastern Brazil. There are eight subsp ...

, ''Quiscalus lugubris'' **

Slender-billed grackle The slender-billed grackle (''Quiscalus palustris'') was a species of grackle in the Icteridae (New World blackbirds) family of birds. The species was closely related to the western clade of the great-tailed grackle, from which it diverged quite r ...

, ''Quiscalus palustris'' - extinct (1910) * Genus '' Hypopyrrhus'' **

Red-bellied grackle The red-bellied grackle (''Hypopyrrhus pyrohypogaster'') is a species of bird in the family Icteridae. Its genus, ''Hypopyrrhus'', is monotypic. One of the grackles, it is endemic to Colombia where its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical ...

, ''Hypopyrrhus pyrohypogaster'' * Genus '' Lampropsar'' **

Velvet-fronted grackle The velvet-fronted grackle (''Lampropsar tanagrinus'') is a species of bird in the family Icteridae, monotypic within the genus ''Lampropsar''. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela where its natural h ...

, ''Lampropsar tanagrinus'' * Genus '' Macroagelaius'' ** Golden-tufted grackle, ''Macroagelaius imthurni'' ** Colombian mountain grackle, ''Macroagelaius subalaris'' Sometimes members of the

starling Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Sturnidae. The Sturnidae are named for the genus '' Sturnus'', which in turn comes from the Latin word for starling, ''sturnus''. Many Asian species, particularly the larger ones, ...

family have historically been called grackles.

Tristram's starling Tristram's starling (''Onychognathus tristramii'') or Tristram's grackle, is a species of starling native to the Middle East. Its territory is in the areas of Israel, Jordan, northeastern Egypt (Sinai Peninsula), western Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and ...

is sometimes known as "Tristram's grackle", and the hill mynas in the genus ''

Gracula ''Gracula'' is a genus of mynas, tropical members of the starling family of birds found in southern Asia and introduced to Florida in the United States. Taxonomy The genus ''Gracula'' was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeu ...

'' have also been called grackles. {{Animal common name Icteridae Bird common names