Can anyone identify this bird?

[Lunabell]

He/she has taken up living in my eaves, but I have lots of ferals. I hope they will be ok. North Florida, near Tallahassee.

[Xipe Totec]

1. Looks like a boat tailed grackle (female) nt

[marble falls]

4. bingo

[Lunabell]

5. Yes, I think you're right.

I googled it and that seems to be what she is. Do you think she has a nest of babies? So far, none of my feral cats have even noticed or tried to get her or to her nest. It's under the eaves on my front porch. I hope they're all ok. I just don't know why she'd build a nest so close to where I feed the ferals.

[2naSalit]

8. I agree.

[ShazzieB]

16. I was going to guess grackle (because it's too slender to be a crow).

But I didn't know what kind. Turns out there are a lot more grackle species than I realized. From wWikipedia:

Grackles is the common name of any of 11 passerine 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.

Learn something new every day!

[rampartc]

2. that, lunabell, appears to be the very rare "corvus brachyrhynchos"

its just a common "amerucan crow"

after further review, it is difficult to judge size from the photo, , so perhaps, if this thing is very large, it could be a raven.

[Lunabell]

3. Too small to be a crow.

I think the boat tailed grackle is probably it.

[BillyBobBrilliant]

6. Boat tailed, or

great-tailed grackle or Mexican grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus). They are ubiquitous here in Texas. The give away is the yellow eye, barely visible in the image.

[marble falls]

7. Yes. That's Sally, I wondered where she went.

[2naSalit]

9. If they send her back...

Probably free shipping.

[marble falls]

10. They're all over around here, and they're almost as smart as crows. When I filled the cats' bowls ..

... this morning one flew off to tell the others. They'll wait until the cats go nap and crowd the bowls.

They're a mixture of interesting and a pain in the patoot.

[2naSalit]

11. I have experienced them...

When I lived in northern Illinois. They ambushed and harassed all the birds at the feeders everyday. And they are very smart, travel in gangs and make a sound that is less than pleasant.

[Diamond_Dog]

12. Yes, 2naSalit

That’s my same experience with them exactly.

[2naSalit]

13. And they roam from feeder to feeder...

Like street fighting gangs in a major city.

[Diamond_Dog]

14. We chase them away when we see them on our feeders

Three or four of them will devour everything in about 5 minutes. I know it’s pointless because they’ll just come back later …. But I want the little birds to have something, too.

[2naSalit]

15. That's exactly what was going on...

At my place. We tried all kinds of hazing methods... my favorite is a slingshot using buckeyes, but those birds, upon first realization they have return fire, scatter to find a hiding spot where they can see you but you can't get them. The opposite of grouse who think you can't see them hiding behind the blade of grass that obscures their eye.

I don't recall what we ended up doing, maybe it was to just scatter the feed all over the place so there was no single concentration anywhere that they could maraud. I wasn't willing to give up having coffee with my cardinals and waxwings.

[Xipe Totec]

17. In college a group of us rented a house from a professor; an ornithologist

Part of the rental agreement was that we would shoot any grackle in the property on sight.

Yes, a Phd ornithologist from Cornell, member of the Audubon Society.

And she hated grackles.