Photo of a small bird, a yellow-rumped warbler. Credit Dieter Lukas
Photo of a bird, a acorn woodpecker. Credit Dieter Lukas
Photo of a bird, a California scrub-jay. Credit Dieter Lukas
Fieldwork simplifies bird identification: the bird on the left is "not a grackle", the bird in the middle is "not a grackle", as is the bird on the right #TheGrackleProject
For actual ID's see alt text.
#Vogelarten: Erkundungsfreude & geringere Sesshaftigkeit treiben schnelle Ausbreitung in neue Gebiete voran. 🐦⬛ Zwei neue Studien @peercomjournal.bsky.social von einem intl. Team um Corina Logan, @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy & Kelsey McCune. #TheGrackleProject www.mpg.de/25181118/081...
A great tailed grackle, a black slender bird with a long tail, is eating fast food cheese sauce in a parking lot. Photo credit C. Logan
„behavioral flexibility, while helpful in allowing birds to adapt to new environments, is not the primary facilitator for range expansion“
news.ucsb.edu/2025/021980/both-flexibi...
#TheGrackleProject
Urban #bird species' key to success: flexibility & persistence. New studies on #grackles by Corina Logan, @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy, Kelsey McCune & colleagues in @peercomjournal.bsky.social. #TheGrackleProject tinyurl.com/yh5ruyr8 & doi.org/10.24072/pcj... & doi.org/10.24072/pcj...
Erfolgsrezept urbaner #Vogelarten: Flexibilität und Beharrlichkeit. Neue spannende Studien zu #Grackeln von einem intl. Forschungsteam um Corina Logan, @dieterlukas.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy & Kelsey McCune in @peercomjournal.bsky.social. #TheGrackleProject www.mpg.de/25003256/070...
Figure 1 from the linked scientific paper showing the 6 different behavioral experiments the grackles participated in. They first had to perform a color reversal learning task, before checking how much they explore a novel environment, how afraid they are of a purple halloween cat / a stuffed pigeon / a stuffed hawk, and how well they are able to access food in two puzzle boxes.
New from #TheGrackleProject: "using multiple different methods for measuring boldness and exploration...our findings improve our understanding of the traits that are linked with flexibility in a highly adaptable species" […]
[Original post on fediscience.org]
Photo of a grackle, a black bird, standing inside the head of my shadow on an otherwise sunny patch of grass. The bird has some food in his beak, looking back at me, but making sure that his whole body remains in the shade.
Catching up on #fieldwork #research with #TheGrackleProject: the great-tailed grackles in California often foraged in the shade, however limited the shade was.
Not sure whether they don't want to stare into the sun, are better hidden from predators, prefer the lower temperature,...?
A photo showing a brown bird, a female grackle, looking at a white board on the ground. She is right next to our feet, walking under a camera tripod, to get to the board.
Catching up on #fieldwork #research with #TheGrackleProject: this female great-tailed grackle in California wanted to make sure that we collect the correct data...
Photo of two male boat-tailed grackles fighting. They are backlight, so only the silhouettes are visible. One male is pulling the wing of the other with his leg.
Photo of two male boat-tailed grackles fighting. One male is jumping, wings open, with his feet pointing toward the other male, who is turning with his beak opened.
Catching up on #fieldwork #research with #TheGrackleProject: grackles mostly ignore each other, but these two juvenile male boat-tailed grackles in Florida got into a disagreement....
