Because the others are females and they are his harem? Maybe all the other males are out buying beer for Super Bowl Sunday? Maybe all the other males are sleeping off their pre-Super Bowl party celebrations last night? I don't know why you only have one male, but here at our house the females always outnumber the males. Often the males eat early in the day and the females eat later. Female redwings don't really look that much like the males, so it is easy to tell that you have more females than males. Lots of people don't even realize the females are female redwings and think they are something else. Yesterday, in a rather odd form of behavior, the males were going mad over the cattail seedheads, and the females weren't. I have no idea what that means. I see a pretty similar gender segregation with the cardinals too. The males come in big groups of 10 or 12 or 15 to eat. Later on, the females come in smaller groups of 2, 3, 4 or 5. I wonder why. Finally, how about the deer and the way they feed. Our does and fawns, even the young males, come together in a group. They eat first. The minute our really big buck shows up, all the others scatter. It isn't that the buck is aggressive and pushes them away from the food. In fact, he stands in the neighbor's pasture about 20' from where the deer are feeding and waits patiently. He never comes to the food and nudges them away from it. However, from the moment he shows up, all the others are antsy and nervous and hungrily snatch a few more bites before quickly leaving together as a group. Respect for the buck's superior size and strength? Fear? Who knows what it is, but it is interesting to watch. Dawn

Kittysmith's vocal discription sounds like a European Starling to me. Those of us familiar with the Common Grackle know it's song is little more than the sound of a rusty hinge. Being human, there are definitely things that I don't care to have on my property. Right now the Japanese beetles are terrible, I can't remember a July without them. If I never see rats again it will be fine with me. European starlings and house sparrows are little more than feathered vermin. We can either discourage these birds and have a greatly improved environment or live in a "Polyanna" world, its a choice each one of us has to make. Sam

No, black birds love Cracked Corn, but will eat just about everything else. The ones near my feeder are fond of sunflower seeds. However, the feeder has a roof and restricts the grackles to just a few at a time. I have a ground feeder filled with nyjer seeds. I notice that many Red Wing Black Birds often visit for a bite, but few Grackles eat it. The tube feeder above serve the finches who aren't bothered by the blackbird because they can't use the feeder. The ground feeder is currently used by mourning doves, who can hold their own against black birds. If you sprinkle food on the ground, the blackbirds will go for that first. I vaguely recall that they are also fond of cheap stuff like cheap dog feed, so you can try to give them an alternate feeder with the cheap stuff. However, this will also bring more black birds to your yard plus rodents. If you set up a feeder for grackles they will go to the easier ones. If there are too many, the rest will go to your other feeder. You may be better off with a tube feeder for small birds and a hanging cage feeder for the woodpeckers. Both are difficult for black birds to use because they are too big. If your neighbor has a easier feeder to use, they will go there and be his or her problem. Paul

The boat tail grackles began coming to this area a few years ago (& most of the starlings-thankfully- then began to leave!). I do think they are beautiful & laugh at their 'look at me!' demeaner & take over our 50 ft. red cedar tree for their noisey 'conferences!but I don't like their aggressive behavior towards other birds! The ones here have black beaks. Am told they rob other bird's nests, eat the eggs, kill & eat the baby birds so am wondering when I see them fly with a small object in their beaks if it is the mosquito eating minnows that we keep (they are live bearers) in the small fish pond. I see them stand on the edge of the pond on rocks to drink & bath so guess when they see one of the top swimming (not to 'bright!) minnows they could catch one? Now we are putting netting over the small inground pond to be safe! Guess we can hope for a new variety of bird to come in when (? if) the grackles move on to an other area of the U.S. Odd, how here we seem to have these migrations of different varieties of birds! Few years ago we had ONE pair of mourning doves in our area.... now they are all over! Then the starlings came & took over for awhile but are a lot fewer now since the grackles arrived. We had one pair of curved billed threshers (orange eyes) three years ago & now our yard has dozens & some build nests in our cactus & seem to be not afraid at all ... even chase the resident squirrel! Now the influx of so many toads to our yard & pond ... THAT is another mystery! They are not afraid & seldom move away & don't seem to be of interest to any of our dogs even when the dogs sniff them at the pond... do they have no aroma or maybe it is offensive to the dogs? Now the blue tail lizzards keep the dogs in a perpetual/fruitless chase!! What a blessing of on-going 'fun' in our small city lot in the high desert!