Birds · Side by side
Red-winged Blackbird vs Common Grackle
How to tell them apart
Quick answer
Check size, tail and eyes: a common grackle is a big, long-tailed blackbird with pale yellow eyes and a purple-bronze sheen, while a male red-winged blackbird is smaller and short-tailed, with dark eyes and red-and-yellow shoulder patches.
Red-winged blackbirds and common grackles are the two 'blackbirds' most people see in eastern North America, and they travel together in the same giant fall and winter flocks. Up close they are easy to separate, but at a distance, or when a male red-wing hides his shoulder patches, they can blur together. Here is how to tell them apart.
Key differences
| Trait | Red-winged Blackbird | Common Grackle |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 6.7–9 in | 11–13.4 in |
| Tail | Medium length and rounded | Long and keel-shaped, often held in a V in flight |
| Eyes | Dark at every age | Pale yellow in adults |
| Adult male | Black with red shoulder patches edged in yellow | Glossy black with a blue-purple head and bronze or purple body |
| Female | Brown and heavily streaked, like a big sparrow | Dull brownish black, smaller and shorter-tailed than the male |
| Song | Gurgling 'conk-la-ree!' | Short, squeaky 'rusty hinge' |
| Breeding habitat | Marshes, ditches and wet fields | Towns, farms and parks with dense trees, especially conifers |
| Conservation status | Least Concern (IUCN) | Near Threatened (IUCN) |
Where you will find each
In the breeding season the two split up. Red-wings are wetland birds: males sing from cattails, bulrushes and shrubs in marshes, roadside ditches, wet meadows and hayfields, and females weave nests into the vegetation, often over water. Grackles prefer open ground with tall trees nearby, so they strut across lawns, parks, cemeteries, pastures and parking lots and nest in loose colonies in dense conifers or shrubs, often near water. Red-wings breed across nearly all of North America, while common grackles are mainly birds of the East and the Great Plains.
Together in winter flocks
After nesting, both species join huge mixed flocks with brown-headed cowbirds and European starlings. These flocks feed in crop fields, pastures and feedlots by day and pour into communal roosts at dusk; southern roosts have held millions of birds. In a flock, grackles stand out by their size and long, creased tails, while red-wings look smaller and shorter-tailed, and the males' shoulder patches often show only as a pale yellow bar. Females of the two species look nothing alike: a streaky brown female red-wing is often taken for a sparrow.
Diet, crops and the law
Both eat mostly seeds and grain outside the breeding season and plenty of insects in summer. The grackle is far more of a predator: it takes crayfish, minnows, frogs and mice, raids other birds' nests for eggs and nestlings, and has been seen killing adult house sparrows. Both are native and protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, though a federal depredation order allows either to be controlled where flocks are seriously damaging crops. Both have also declined since the 1960s, the grackle much more steeply, by more than half.
By the numbers
The traits the daily bird game compares for each.
| Clue | Red-winged Blackbird | Common Grackle |
|---|---|---|
| Group | Blackbirds & orioles | Blackbirds & orioles |
| Colors | Black, Red, Yellow | Black, Blue |
| Habitat | Wetlands | Backyards |
| Region | Nationwide | Eastern |
| Length | 8 in | 12 in |
| Wingspan | 14 in | 16 in |
| Diet | Seeds | Omnivore |
FAQ
Is a grackle a type of blackbird?
Yes. Both grackles and red-winged blackbirds belong to the New World blackbird family, Icteridae, which also includes orioles, meadowlarks and cowbirds.
Can a red-winged blackbird hide its red patches?
Yes. A resting male can cover the red with his body feathers so that only the yellow or buff border shows. When he sings or displays, he flares the patches wide.
Which one is declining faster?
The common grackle. Breeding Bird Survey data show it fell by more than half from 1966 to 2019, versus roughly 28 percent for the red-winged blackbird, and the grackle is now listed as Near Threatened.
Why do grackles have yellow eyes?
Adult common grackles develop pale yellow eyes; young birds have dark eyes until they mature. Red-winged blackbirds have dark eyes at every age, which makes eye color a quick way to separate the two.
Could you tell them apart from a few clues? Test yourself in today's puzzle.
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