Common Grackle
El Dorado Park, Long Beach
Los Angeles County, California
3 January 2000
Joseph Morlan

Today, Robbie Fischer and I decided to go to Area III in Eldorado Park to look for the three Common Grackles reported there yesterday by Tom Wurster and Karen Gilbert. Karen had left us a telephone message alerting us to the bird and had told us that the birds were seen at the south end of the lake in Area III where several hundred Great-tailed Grackles staged before going to roost in the evening. We arrived around 3pm to find Karen Gilbert present, but the birds had not been seen. Soon Michael J. San Miguel Jr. arrived followed by Mike San Miguel Sr. and eventually Larry Sansone, Bob Beckler, Brian Daniels, Jeff Boyd, Steve Morris, and others arrived.

Michael J. San Miguel Jr. was the first to spot one of the Common Grackles. It was with Great-tailed Grackles and Brewer's Blackbirds around the edge of the lake. We watched it through scopes as it bathed in the shallow water and preened in the reeds. It walked on the ground but was dominated by the many Great-tailed Grackles in the vicinity. We saw this individual (or a similar bird) several times.

The following is based on notes taken during and immediately after the observation:

The bird was an obvious grackle, smaller than female Great-tailed Grackles nearby, but decidedly larger than nearby Brewer's Blackbird. The head and chest were bright iridescent cobalt blue contrasting strongly with the shiny bronzy-greenish back and body. The black tail was slightly graduated at the tip, forming an obtuse angle. The tail was held straight, parallel to the ground and not cocked in the air as in many of the Great-tailed Grackles. The tail was not "keeled" as in the Great-tailed Grackles.

We saw this bird several times, once in full sunlight in a close tree. At times the bronzy back and belly had a brownish cast and in certain lighting, the scapulars flashed pinkish.

The crown and forehead were relatively flat compared to the rounded crown of Brewer's Blackbird and the bill was decidedly longer and more tapered than Brewer's Blackbird. However the bill was more petite and shorter than the much larger bills of Great-tailed Grackles. The iris was clear pale yellow, the pupil black. Legs and feet were black.

The cheek and lore area appeared slightly darker than the rest of the bluish iridescent head, often appearing black.

Once the bird called, giving a rapid series of low, heavy "chuck" notes, accelerating slightly and quite different from the loud whistles of the Great-tailed Grackles and deeper and more rapid than the notes of Brewer's Blackbird.

Later, Karen Gilbert located a different individual which was sitting in a bare Sycamore along the road. We studied this bird through scopes at some length, with no clear consensus as to its identity.

It was much duller than the first bird, with the underparts appearing largely brown in good light. The eye was dull yellowish brown. The underside of the tail appeared brown and more strongly graduated than that of the first bird. However the tail was about the same length as bird #1 and not evidently keeled. This bird showed a contrasting bluish hood, similar to bird #1 but was much duller in color and in some light did not appear very shiny or even very blue. The throat often shined purple depending on the light and the blue did not come down across the chest as clearly as on bird #1. We concluded that this bird might have been a young Common Grackle, but the possibility of Great-tailed Grackle x Brewer's Blackbird hybrid cannot be excluded without a better view of the bird's back.

Karen Gilbert was unsure if the dull bird #2 was one of the three seen the previous day. However she felt the three birds from the day before were all very similar and this individual looked different. Steve Morris told me that he saw two similar looking Common Grackles together, but I did not see more than one at a time. Larry Sansone and Mike San Miguel Sr. attempted photos of bird #1 and Karen Gilbert may have obtained photos of bird #2.