Distinguishing Grackles Vs Starling Silhouettes in Distant Flight (1 Viewer)

[UnknownSpecies56]

Hi folks,

I've been trying to mark features that can distinguish grackles and starlings in flight at distance. This usually means you can only see the silhouette of the birds. I've made a composite images showing starling and common grackles silhouettes in image one. Now comparing this composite image to an image of a large flock of birds, I think the silhouettes match that of a grackle better.

I noticed that a grackles wings on the down-beat seem more rounded compared to a starling in the same motion. Starlings seem to have more triangular or pointed wings on the downbeat. Taking this into consideration, I believe the birds in the photo I took are grackles. What do you folks think?

There were almost 2000 birds in the flock in the photograph, which is why I'm really want to ID the birds and report them on eBird.

Thanks,

 

[tom baxter]

The birds in the 2nd photo are indeed grackles, they look to be common grackles to me. You are correct they have more rounded wings that are also longer, also in photo number 2 the tails show enough detail to be distinct from starlings.

 

[UnknownSpecies56]

Thanks tom! There were 1773 of these birds. I was able to grab a wide angle shot and counted each one in photoshop.