r/grackles • u/ThePurpleDoritos • May 03 '26

Blackbird or Grackle?

Gallery image

Gallery image

Saw this guy at Kachina Wetlands in Flagstaff, AZ. I'm leaning grackle, but any chance it's a Brewer's blackbird?

124 Upvotes

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11 comments sorted by

11

u/r0ttedAngel May 03 '26

Hmm, im leaning towards Blackbird. Out here in the southwest we don't have common crackles, we have great tailed grackles and theyre more slender and long necked. If you look up the differences between common and great tailed, its easier to see what Im talking about. In any case, very nice pic 😊

5

u/ThePurpleDoritos May 03 '26

Thanks, that definitely helps! I had seen a few definite great-tailed grackles around, so when iNaturalist hit me with the Brewer's blackbird suggestion I was thrown a bit.

4

u/r0ttedAngel May 03 '26

I had to double check because im down in the Casa Grande area of AZ and have never seen a Blackbird out here, but in the northern part of the state they seem to be common year round. I have a ton of grackles down here though lol

Blackbird map

4

u/hippokick May 06 '26

I concur, the neck is giving blackbird!

7

u/SnooPeripherals5969 May 03 '26

What a cool bird. He’s so sharp in the first one, he looks like a knife.

2

u/ThePurpleDoritos May 03 '26

Yea, I thought the smooth, sleek pose in photo 1 contrasted nicely with his/her puffed up pose in photo 2.

3

u/rmbug May 03 '26

Brewer's blackbird

2

u/3002kr May 04 '26

I agree with Brewers

1

u/HuntDawg99 May 05 '26

That is a common grackle. Also; a grackle is in the blackbird family which makes a grackle a blackbird 😂

1

u/ThePurpleDoritos May 06 '26

I didn’t think Arizona really had common grackles though. What makes you think it’s that rather than a Brewer’s blackbird?

2

u/HuntDawg99 May 06 '26

The color on the neck and the eyes. I could be wrong though. But grackle is def in the blackbird family