Great-tailed Grackle

The sound of South Texas, for any bird watcher, has to be the Great-tailed and Common Grackle flocks that congregate on the wires in the towns along the Rio Grande every evening. It is so exotic, at least to ears tuned to more eastern and northern bird sounds. I will admit that I don’t find grackles in great numbers all that attractive. However, in small groups, deeper into true Grackle habitat as you see them here at Estro Llano Grande World Birding Center south of Weslaco Texas, they are…well, at least entertaining if not attractive. 🙂 This is a typical display posture for the Great-tailed Grackle.

Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ ISO 1000 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Windows tablet.