Great-tailed Grackle Sounds

Overview
ID info
Life History
Maps
Sounds

Male song (Western)
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Colorado, May 21, 2006Recorded by Nathan Pieplow
Song and calls (Western)
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California, April 09, 2001Recorded by Geoffrey A. Keller | Macaulay Library
Calls (Western)
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Colorado, April 26, 2011Recorded by Andrew Spencer
Calls (Western)
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Colorado, May 21, 2006Recorded by Nathan Pieplow
Calls (Western)
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Colorado, April 20, 2012Recorded by Andrew Spencer
Long song (Great-tailed)
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Texas, May 01, 1995Recorded by Geoffrey A. Keller | Macaulay Library

Sounds provided by Macaulay Library.
Listen to more sounds of this species from the ML archive.

Songs

Great-tailed Grackles make an impressive array of sounds, ranging from sweet, tinkling notes to what one biologist described as “calls so loud they were best heard at a distance.” Other descriptions include “rusty gate hinge” and “machinery badly in need of lubrication.” The male’s territorial song includes a sound like crackling brush, a rapid-fire ki ki ki repeated 1–12 times, mechanical rattling notes, and a shrieking, high-pitched whistle.

Calls

When ready to mate, both sexes give a “solicitation call” of clear cheat or che notes. Both males and females also make a low-pitched, hard chut alarm call, and males give a loud clack in response to humans and other predators. Females “chatter” when building the nest and when incubating eggs and feeding young.