{"id":100909,"date":"2022-03-18T05:23:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T11:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=100909"},"modified":"2022-03-18T05:23:00","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T11:23:00","slug":"male-great-tailed-grackle-whatchu-lookin-at","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/03\/18\/male-great-tailed-grackle-whatchu-lookin-at\/","title":{"rendered":"Male Great-tailed Grackle – Whatchu Lookin’ At?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Great-tailedGreat-tailed Grackle male in a pine close up \u2013 Nikon D500, tripod mounted, f10, 1\/800, ISO 500, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When I photographed this Great-tailed Grackle male in a pine yesterday I was torn between focusing on taking photos of him and laughing out loud. I did both.<\/p>\n

The male Great-tailed Grackles have been putting on a show at a pond close to where I live. There is a lot of posturing, bill pointing, and more than a few have been walking around with their chests all puffed up. It is Great-tailed Grackle breeding season here in northern Utah and the males are certainly exhibiting behaviors that indicate that it is.<\/p>\n

While I photographed other birds yesterday morning it was the grackles that kept drawing my attention. They make a lot of sounds. Loud sounds. Raucous sounds.\u00a0 The grackles are hard to ignore.<\/p>\n

When I saw this male Great-tailed Grackle in the pine there was another male in the tree with him. The other male was mostly hidden from my view so I focused on this guy. Then I got this look from him for three frames and the phrase “Whatchu lookin’ at” came to my mind which made me laugh.<\/p>\n

I couldn’t help myself. Viewing this image on my larger screen at home made me laugh all over again.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Great-tailed Grackle photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I photographed this Great-tailed Grackle male in a pine yesterday I was torn between focusing on taking photos of him and laughing out loud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,426,709,26],"tags":[4004,3813,3483,4073,4142,779,4779,4780,2429,4062,10698,5540,4046,4778,4018,4427,8018,373],"class_list":["post-100909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-great-tailed-grackles","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-blackbird","tag-blackbirds","tag-breeding-season","tag-close-up","tag-displaying","tag-grackle","tag-grackles","tag-great-tailed-grackle","tag-male","tag-park","tag-pine","tag-portrait","tag-quiscalus-mexicanus","tag-sky","tag-tree","tag-urban","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/great-tailed-grackle-male-in-a-conifer-mia-mcpherson-4060.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-qfz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":100863,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/03\/16\/it-is-great-tailed-grackle-breeding-season\/","url_meta":{"origin":100909,"position":0},"title":"It Is Great-tailed Grackle Breeding Season","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 16, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I had a fun time at my local pond yesterday because it is Great-tailed Grackle breeding season and photographing these grackles kept me on my toes.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Four Great-tailed Grackle males displaying, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/great-tailed-grackle-adult-male-displaying-2538.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/great-tailed-grackle-adult-male-displaying-2538.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/great-tailed-grackle-adult-male-displaying-2538.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/great-tailed-grackle-adult-male-displaying-2538.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":110423,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/02\/21\/coming-soon-great-tailed-grackle-breeding-season\/","url_meta":{"origin":100909,"position":1},"title":"Coming Soon: Great-tailed Grackle Breeding Season","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 21, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"On two of my most recent walks I have seen Great-tailed Grackles. 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When I found it, I giggled out loud because of where it was perched.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Great-tailed Grackle and weathervane, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/great-tailed-grackle-male-weathervane-mia-mcpherson-3615.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/great-tailed-grackle-male-weathervane-mia-mcpherson-3615.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/great-tailed-grackle-male-weathervane-mia-mcpherson-3615.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/great-tailed-grackle-male-weathervane-mia-mcpherson-3615.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":111340,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/03\/19\/urban-bird-male-great-tailed-grackle\/","url_meta":{"origin":100909,"position":4},"title":"Urban Bird: Male Great-tailed Grackle","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 19, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"While I was walking around my local pond three days ago I enjoyed having a male Great-tailed Grackle in my viewfinder for a bit. 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