urbpan: (dandelion)
[personal profile] urbpan
While flipping through a field guide this morning (NERD!) I discovered that I have made a reporting error! At some point, I said that the boat-tailed grackle (Quiscalus major a big black bird that makes a wonderful cacophany of metallic noises) was the most common urban bird we saw in Las Vegas. Oops! That bird isn't known to occur in Las Vegas, so either we made a fascinating discovery, or an error. We weren't looking closely enough to make a discovery.

The real most common urban bird of Las Vegas is the great-tailed grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus, a different species of big black bird that makes a wonderful cacophany of metallic noises). Honestly, there isn't a whole hell of a lot of difference between these two. Fortunately, there is very little overlap in their ranges in North America. I saw the boat-tailed in Jacksonville, Florida, and the great-tailed in Las Vegas.

In Las Vegas, I was in my brother's residential neighborhood, in my wedding suit, getting ready to test ride my brother's bike, when I said "which one of your neighbor's has a parrot?" The parrot-like calls (in intensity, really, more than tone) were male great-tailed grackles.

Now I'm planning on maybe checking out the black birds down on the Riverway. I'd assumed they were common grackles (Quiscalus quiscula, medium sized black birds that make a wonderful cacophany of metallic noises), but upon browsing the field guide (NERD!) it seems like they may be rusty blackbirds! (Euphagus carolinus)

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