Egyptians had their locusts. I am plagued with grackles. As a bird watcher and avid bird feeder, I despise grackles. They show up in mid-March and stay till mid-June, all the while eating me out of house and home. It wouldn’t be so bad if there were just a half dozen or so, but they come in swarms, up to 50 and more and they pound my feeders with sunflower hearts and my hanging Peanut Suet Logs and both of these bird foods are expensive,
But what can I do?
I know the bluebirds eat the sunflower chips or hearts as adults and will feed their chicks those seeds if nothing else is available. The fledgling bluebirds also gravitate to that feeder. And I now have two families of catbirds that dearly love the suet. If I take those feeders down, the grackles go away, but then my songbirds suffer.
The only thing that grackles are good for is crow food. Crows regularly rob grackle nests of both their eggs and chicks. I’ve seen a crows flying away with a chick in its mouth and grackles close behind raising hell. Get ‘em crows, is all I can say. The last of the grackles left my yard this week, giving me 9 months of peace and quiet before they return.
I despise grackles!