Common Grackle vs Brown-headed Cowbird
The check that settles it
Smaller, short conical bill, dark eye, and a brown head on the male.
Common Grackle
Quiscalus quiscula
- Size
- 28–34 cm
- Bill
- thin pointed
- Where
- yard, open field, feeder, city
- Voice
- A harsh rising creak, often compared to a rusty gate.
Brown-headed Cowbird
Molothrus ater
- Size
- 16–22 cm
- Bill
- conical
- Where
- feeder, open field, yard
- Voice
- A liquid, bubbling 'glug-glug-gleee' followed by thin high whistles.
Confirming a common grackle
- A pale yellow eye — obvious even at distance.
- A long tail held in a V-shaped keel in flight.
- Iridescence that changes from bronze to purple with the angle of the light.
- Walks on lawns in loose flocks.
Confirming a brown-headed cowbird
- A short, thick, conical bill — finch-like, not the long pointed bill of a blackbird.
- Male: black body with a chocolate-brown head, which can look black in poor light.
- Female: uniformly plain grey-brown, no pattern, faint streaking below.
- Tail is short relative to other blackbirds.