We have 4 Grackles that visit our yard and they haven't bothered our minnows in our pond. My husband dumps the left over minnows from his fishing trips into the pond. We also have a few goldfish in there as well. Haven't noticed the Grackles bothering the fish. I personally don't think the Grackles are beautiful. At least ours are not. They're all blackish and very annoying. They chase away all of the smaller birds, raid the feeders and make a mess of the suit. Some of my neighbors have joked that they want to get a super soak-er and shoot them with streams of water to chase them off lol Are you sure you have Grackles?

edited to say that I think you may be seeing a cowbird. They raid other birds nests and toss out the eggs and then lay their eggs in that next for the other birds to raise. I don't think grackles do that. Grackles are all blackish with bluish or dark purplish colors when they turn and the light hits them a certain way. Most have black beaks but some like those in my area have yellow beaks. Google grackles and cowbirds and look at images to see the difference between the two.

This post was edited by sunflowersrus222 on Thu, Jun 6, 13 at 9:21

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!

Toads coming to a yard with a pond is no mystery at all. They are attracted to the water. We are constantly having to net the bull frogs that are coming into our yard to be at our pond. They will eat small birds and anything else they can fit in their mouths. I would love to have lizards but we're too cold here in PA for them.

Today I saw my first pair of Baltimore Oriels and am beside myself with joy over them. Even made a feeder for them out of copper wire. Now I need to get some oranges. Already attached a small plastic dish and filled it with sugar water solution for them and another with grape jelly. About an hour later they were sitting on my new feeder munching away. I had no idea they would like grape jelly till I read about them online.

I know what you mean about on-going fun. I just enjoy my yard. Every day I discover something new showing up.

I just found this and thought you would like to read it. Its about grackles and what they eat. Apparently they do like to eat small fish and will even eat leeches. So I can see how they would eat your minnows. The minnows we have don't stay up at the surface of the pond. They come up for food then shoot to the bottom again.

Here is a link that might be useful: all about birds common Grackles

Since our minnows are introduced to eat the mosquito larvae on the pond surface, they do spend most of the time at the surface unfortunately where they are 'fair game' for the grackles! So envious of you having the orioles come to feed!! We do have hummingbirds & feeders & laugh when they come to our small glass hummingbird hanging on a cord from the eaves outdoors .... they really think it is a real 'one of them' & 'dive' bomb at it!! One hummer will take possession of each feeder so we rarely see more than one at a feeder at a time! I had no idea that toads would eat small birds! Guess in time these of ours could become a real pest?!

Thanks for your help!

Since our minnows are introduced to eat the mosquito larvae on the pond surface, they do spend most of the time at the surface unfortunately where they are 'fair game' for the grackles! So envious of you having the orioles come to feed!! We do have hummingbirds & feeders & laugh when they come to our small glass hummingbird hanging on a cord from the eaves outdoors .... they really think it is a real 'one of them' & 'dive' bomb at it!! One hummer will take possession of each feeder so we rarely see more than one at a feeder at a time! I had no idea that toads would eat small birds! Guess in time these of ours could become a real pest?!

Thanks for your help!

Oh,my gosh... just looked up the grackle site & found I have been SO wrong about the grackles we have here in zone 7 in the high desert of the Soutwest!!!
Ours are NOT the 'boat tailed' grackles (in the SE) at all but instead the 16 inch 'great tailed' grackles... long tail & adults seem to be all black!

Am so sorry & embarassed with my mistaken ID all this time!

Don't worry about it. I've been wrong on many occasions as well, especially when trying to ID birds.

I've watched common grackles here in Fla catching cuban anoles ( a small lizard) to eat