Common Grackle as a Housepet

[leafhopper]

This is most wonderful for you and Leroy. I know the feeling. This is perhaps not because you hand fed him, I think - I have fed ten or more of the grackle nestlings and released them to their parents and flock watching them accepted - the bond is likely to develop as the bird grows along with the development of its consciousness communicating with you more and more. I have not seen Kitchi for more than a day now. Today was his second night outside. Yesterday, he came back at around noon and called for me and my wife very loud - we were most glad as we were waiting very much! Today, it is almost 3 PM and we have not seen him so far. We hope he/ she is OK - knowing well how to forage and be careful. We have not had pets for years, and this has been our dearest.

 

[Min]

I had a Henry, a grackle I raised from a tiny hatchling with instructions from a rehabber when she was too full to accept more. I was able to release Henry after playing parent and teaching him how to forage for bugs. The neighbors thought it silly to see me turning over leaves and showing him how to find bugs. He was in a screened tent while he got acquainted to the local outdoor grackles, then could be let out without them attacking him as a stranger to the flock. They all used to gather around and wonder about him in the tent. Even after release and with the flock, he would fly to my shoulder and click in my ear. One day he thought he would experiment on that shiny ball I have in my eye socket. OUCH! In the fall, he left with the flock. I'd call that success. If he ever came back, he was wild and needed nothing to do with us anymore. As it should be.

 

[leafhopper]

Actually, this is my mistake - Kitchi is only about two month old.

 

[leafhopper]

Kitchi also tried my eye - not too bad however on the borderline - my ears were worse but not too bad either! Good Luck to all of our grackles and all other grackles and other birds that are not exactly ours, and all other life forms as we know them, as well as to all those that we might not know well enough!

 

[Bokkapooh]

Handraised birds who have been raised around people shouldn't be released if they're too imprinted. The snuggling him will make him imprinted and he will go to people when released. Rehabilitation should be left for the experts. Its too risky otherwise.

 

[leafhopper]

Handraised birds who have been raised around people shouldn't be released if they're too imprinted. The snuggling him will make him imprinted and he will go to people when released. Rehabilitation should be left for the experts. Its too risky otherwise.

What is too imprinted you say? What is snuggling? Mine will not go to people including you or my neighbors who tried. Who are experts? I read some are good and some are awful. What is too risky? What is your experience? Or is it just your nickel in here? If you are trying to say to me what I should do you better write more and be more specific including reputable references. I said right here I had hand raised more than ten of them and released seen successfully accepted.

 

[Bokkapooh]

I've had birds for over 12 years. I'm no expert. But I've worked at a wildlife sanctuary for several years and helped released birds.

You do not release unweaned babies for starters. And they need to be TAUGHT by their handfeeder how to forage. They won't learn it from the wild birds if they're unweaned or imprinted on people. Most babies who are imprinted don't even consider their own kind as their own species.

Which is why its crucial for qualified rehabilators to do rehabilitation. Its also illegal to do your "rehabilitation" unless you've gotten your states wildlife rehabilitation license?

 

[Bokkapooh]

Snuggling/cuddling is what the man is doing in the picture. It makes the bird imprinted.

 

[leafhopper]

I said already twice perhaps to little effect that I had hand raised more than ten of them and released seen successfully accepted. I checked and double checked that the young birds are fed and otherwise taken care of by their same family group while the group is still well around. Also, before I removed the picture, you could clearly see that the man did not snuggle/ cuddle the bird - it was just sitting on his shoulder. In your previous post you justifiably said that grackles would not allow you to snuggle them. Where does this stand? Should you wish to press charges against me for doing what I do without a state licence - you are always welcome as your customs and conscience go. I am not your country's citizen however I do my best to comply. There is a paper by your ornithologists you can find on the web, who studied the content of grackles' stomach learning what they eat killing thousands of them describing how the "researchers" attracted and shot them - and you paid them through your taxes. Very few people said no to this cruel nonsense - I am among them saying no way to these tax payer's "studies". Tell me more about your licences.

The population of the common grackle decreased by 60% over the last decade. This species however is categorized in your country by conservationists as the least concern. Without a licence, I am taking the concern about the bird as my own and personal, and this is not my least concern as you can well see from my posts. I do not have the licence, however I am a PhD biologist with a good feeling about what I do and with references to my papers in major textbooks. Tell me more about excessive cuddling.

 

[leafhopper]

While we are taking care of our birds, individually and with great help of wildlife rehabilitators, let us also be aware of and possibly act against mass killing of birds and other animals taking large proportions in this country since 1970s. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, 16 U.S.C. §§ 703–712 is overruled by regional ordinances once the birds are considered a “nuisance” by local authorities resulting in mass poisoning of large flocks of birds, particularly overwintering in rural areas, using toxic substances, including areal spraying from aircrafts. The amount of killed animals largely outnumbers those saved in wildlife rescue centers. Can we stop this from happening? Can those responsible be brought to justice? http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/resources/facts/avitrol.html

Our Kitchi is doing well. After we had not seen her for 5 days, she came back one morning to eat from the feeder and to spend maybe one more night inside especially as it was raining. She already has perhaps half of adult shiny feathers.

 

[leafhopper]

Here he is now.

 

[Anne & Gang]

how beautiful!!

 

[Sadieladie1994]

Thank you all for the information. •This was a fascinating thread to read.

 

[Chantilly Lace]

Gorgeous! I LOVE grackles, we have them here and I have always loved them. They really love to eat popcorn, I would buy bags of popcorn and hold it in my hands, and the grackles would come up and eat right out of my hand. Almost hovering over my hand, kind of perching on me for a second. The females seemed to be the ones who would be more friendly and less scared.

 

[leafhopper]

Sure this weight is good up to 170g if the bird has the room to fly. Not as if you do not do this, however as a suggestion - give him/ her occasionally some verity foods, a blackberry, a shrimp, a bit of raw fish, not salted or spiced, a bit of whatever. What you feed her is what I feed mine too as the background. This should be good. However imagine feeding ourselves on pizza Italian sausage top and nothing else for years..... this can be boring and some nutrients lacking.

 

[leafhopper]

There is a good paper by Lynds Jones "The Oberlin Summer Grackle Roost" you may like.
A quick update on Kitchi. He had spent some nights in the trees in our back yard, and later on he started flying away at about 7 PM, to join a roost somewhere, I think. He comes back to our yard at about 10 AM - noon and spends the time till the evening foraging around and very occasionally using a feeder on our deck - never looking very hungry though. Occasionally, there is a young female grackle visiting us too. Kitchi forages sometimes together with her, but most often they do not communicate much. He still likes to sit on my wife's or my shoulder for a while occasionally, however I cannot make him step on my finger as readily as I used to - even if he ends up on my finger, he spends only several seconds there and flies right away. On a shoulder, he can still sit for good five minutes or so when he wants to, especially before flying away for the night. Before flying away, he calls several times loudly perhaps inviting us to join. He knows well by now that people do not fly and he can well tell a bird from a person from a cat, yet he still answers our calls and call us before he flies away. We love him very much and we also like the fact that he has become well adjusted in the nature. In the evening after he leaves, I sometimes go around our neighborhood watching groups of grackles flying away for the night roost. I hope to find where the roost is, yet this may be quite a way away.

 

[Bokkapooh]

I'm sorry Leafhopper, I find your term "Your Country" derogatory and unneeded. You're here either as an illegal, student, whichever means, so its very much "our country" if you live here.

If you are truly a PhD in Biology than perhaps you should work for some wildlife rescues. In the mean time you are harming the wildlife.

Yes I'm very aware of what OUR country has done to the wildlife. I'm very proactive in that department. But that doesnt mean what you're doing is ethically correct either.

Your claim on the wild grackles taking in the fledglings you release unweaned is remarkable. I'd love to see proof of videos, etc of these wild birds feeding and showing the unweaned fledglings how to be a grackle because that's remarkable and unheard of in the bird world. I'd love to know more on this and how its possible.

 

[leafhopper]

I'm sorry Leafhopper, I find your term "Your Country" derogatory and unneeded. You're here either as an illegal, student, whichever means, so its very much "our country" if you live here.

If you are truly a PhD in Biology than perhaps you should work for some wildlife rescues. In the mean time you are harming the wildlife.

Yes I'm very aware of what OUR country has done to the wildlife. I'm very proactive in that department. But that doesnt mean what you're doing is ethically correct either.

Your claim on the wild grackles taking in the fledglings you release unweaned is remarkable. I'd love to see proof of videos, etc of these wild birds feeding and showing the unweaned fledglings how to be a grackle because that's remarkable and unheard of in the bird world. I'd love to know more on this and how its possible.

Do not be sorry, Bokkapooh, and do not be such spoilsport too. I am what I truly am, no ifs - here is my LinkedIn Dmitri V Novikov | LinkedIn and so I work where I work and I like it. Wildlife rescue would be good otherwise, but it is not that I should do exactly that, in a way you put it - yours/ ours is a free country, right? What exactly is derogatory calling your country your country? I live in several countries, and so this country is partly mine however by all means it is yours more than mine. In the meantime, I am not harming wildlife or anything else to my knowledge, besides your feelings somehow perhaps. As to unheard of released grackle fledglings getting accepted by flock please read this - published by Avian Haven, excerpt below.

On July 11, 2004, we admitted a Grackle nestling on the verge of fledging. We still had two other young Grackles at the time, and they all went out to a flight cage on the 16th. Almost from that moment, this nestling was in frequent vocal communication with two wild adults; they sat in a tree near the flight cage, and "talked" with the youngster for hours on end. The other young Grackles in the cage did not participate in the conversation, however. On the 18th we decided to give the talkers an opportunity to get together: Diane sat in the foyer of the cage with the fledgling, and when the adults came to call, she quietly opened the door and the young bird walked out. At first, we thought we'd made a mistake, because the adults did not come down after the youngster. But they stayed in vocal contact, and we persuaded ourselves not to intervene as the juvenile flew from shrub to low tree branch to higher tree branch, always toward the persistently calling adults. Within half an hour, we saw the fledgling high in our tallest tree, perched close to one adult while the other fed it. This youngster had been brought to us from more than 100 miles away. Although it was unlikely to have been the adults' natural offspring, they certainly seemed determined and delighted to adopt it.

 

[Bokkapooh]

I just read the page

The grackles were not handraised from an early stage causing them to imprint. An imprinted bird often doesn't beg to another bird. But to people.

I did enjoy your link.

I do not mean to be a "spoil sport". Its just prior to getting into parrots I was heavily into volunteering ffor the local wildlife center that I went to. And we saw these mistakes all the time of people trying to help but it just made things worse.

 

[leafhopper]

Thank you. Mine begged loudly and to all around and I saw them accepted and fed for days on around my yard. I would not have released them otherwise. My first experience was when I was walking around with a fledgling when it flew away a bit and got fed almost immediately after. I have had about 30 grackles nesting and feeding their fledglings April - May each year in a pine tree by my deck. Those are the birds that accept their young originally dropped from the nests once I have fed the nestlings for a couple of weeks till they can fly at the age several days past their fledgling time. If you noticed the dates in the citation from Avian Haven, the bird they were talking about was fed for about a week before it was released and accepted. This is similar to my situation, only I release to their own parents, not miles away. About imprinting myths: http://www.rainbowwildlife.com/baby-bird.htm "A bird that has imprinted on people is at a definite disadvantage for the first few weeks of freedom. Any that outlast these weeks have as good a chance as any other. You still have to supplement the diet of a freed bird at regular intervals through the day, they will learn to forage and will imprint on it's own kind in time." I also hate mistakes and made sure that was not a mistake when I released the birds. Apparently, grackles are not likely to be subject to imprinting if they are introduced to their natural environment on time.