I check the videos that my bird feeder camera has captured every day. Grackles star in roughly 85% of the videos, but with a bird that colorful, I really don’t mind. It appears grackles are learning to share. Well, technically, the other bird species have finally figured out that they need to bully their way in or they’ll never get to eat.

I’m always excited when the camera catches a new species at the feeder: male and female House Finches, female Northern Cardinal, Eurasian Collared-Doves (including one mated pair with a leucistic female), Mourning Doves, and I was over the moon to even see a Carolina Chickadee drop in a few times (a first for my yard)! As for the Fish Crows – they barely fit on the feeder and they definitely don’t share.

I was much less excited to witness an invasive European Starling at my feeder. As you can see, grackle did not cede territory easily. Thankfully, starlings have remained few and far between.