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Great-tailed Grackle


Great-tailed Grackle
Photo Information
Copyright: Chris Chafer (sandpiper2) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1635 W: 111 N: 3434] (11127)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2007-12-12
Categories: Birds
Camera: Pentax K100D Super, Sigma 70-300 DG Macro, Digital ISO-400, Matin 58mm UV
Exposure: f/5.6, 1/350 seconds
Photo Version: Original Version
Theme(s): My trip to Belize and Costa Rica [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2008-01-14 2:46
Viewed: 703
Points: 14
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
We found a flock of Great-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus) just outside Santa Elena hunting caterpillars in the freshly mowed grass of this picnic site. They are a distinctive bird, with their long tail creased in a V-shape. Males have this glossy blue-black sheen, the female is browner. They are primarily a ground bird and found wherever humans have settled. They are gregarious and roost communally in large trees near human habitation.

Great-tailed Grackle is found from central USA through all of Central America and coastal parts of Columbia, Venezuela and Ecuador. Open areas with scattered trees and nearby water, including pastures, agricultural areas, mangroves, and urban and suburban areas. They feed primarily on insects, but are also known to take fish, lizards and occasionally nestlings of other bird species.
Miss_Piggy, Adanac, ramthakur, claudine, jcoowanitwong, uleko has marked this note useful
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Critiques [Translate]

  • Great 
  • Adanac Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1029 W: 1 N: 3944] (13268)
  • [2008-01-14 4:07]

Hello Chris,
You hav captured great details in the black plummage which is difficult. This is a wonderful portrait of this species, thanks Chris.
Rick

Hallo Chris
This is a wonderful looking bird with really stunning colours. They eye does it for me. It stands out so beautifully against the dark blue almost black colour. I like the metallic gloss on the plumage. It looks as if it is on a mission somewhere. It eyes are focused to front and it seems to be in a hurry to get wherever it is going. Thanks for sharing.
Kind regards
Anna

Hi Chris!
Looks like you had a wonderful holiday in South America.
Please accept my belated new year's best wishes.
This is a fine capture of this lovely Grackle you shot in Belize. I like the colour of this bird.
TFS and regards.
Ram

  • Great 
  • joey Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1542 W: 233 N: 5128] (18077)
  • [2008-01-14 7:20]

Hello Chris,
this bird has the most magnificent iridescent sheen on its plumage!
Superb composition and POV.
Great clarity and sharpness.
Natural lighting.
Well done,
Joe

Hi Chris,
We do have Grackles here but not with this kind of tail! I must be honest, I don't like those noisy and inquisitive birds but I can appreciate this beautiful capture and good composition. Those guys come in large flocks in spring and early summer and when they are nesting, they take the fecal bags of their young’s and throw them directly in and around my pool! What a mess but it's in their nature… If my pool was a river, they would do the same. This is a perfect example of animal's hygenia but for those reasons you'll understand, it is a very disagreeable behavior :) Thanks,
Claudine

Hello Chris,
The Great-tailed Grackle image is in good focus. The dark plumage is well seen with great color contrast. Lovely composition. Very well done and tfs.
JC

  • Great 
  • uleko Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2320 W: 164 N: 6917] (21924)
  • [2008-01-15 8:17]

Hello Chris,
What a great capture of this beautiful bird in a glossy blue-black plumage and long tail feathers. I like its pose and the sharp details are impressive. Well composed too.
TFS and cheers, Ulla

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