SOUTH NEWFANE Last week, I was a music critic, reviewing the musical abilities of our locally common blackbirds: red-winged blackbird, brown-headed cowbird, and common grackle. My review was not ...

Female common grackle. “Lanky blackbird with long tail and heavy, long bill. Females are less glossy than males.” They are also darker and more uniformly colored than the female great-tailed.

A common and widespread ground-dwelling icterid of the West, the Brewer’s in some ways replaces the common grackle ecologically. Monotypic. Length 9". A summer rusty blackbird is similar, but it ...