Grackles aren’t an uncommon sight (or sound) in Houston, but this aggregation caught by KHOU 11 reporter Brett Buffington recorded this January 29, 2020 at the Kroger on South Post Oak is amazing (Meyerland).
Minus the attacking birds in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 film ‘The Birds’, this scene could be scarier. Hundreds of Grackles had a rendezvous at the Kroger grocery store at 10306 South Post Oak Road in Houston, Texas on January 29, 2020.
When Grackles are in a group, they are referred to as a “plague.” Grackles are semicolonial and often prefer to nest in loose colonies for protection from predators, according to the The Wildlife Center of Virginia. Forty-eight grackles were rescued on May 7, 2013 when a local tree service inadvertently destroyed a colony of nests will cutting down large spruce trees in Verona, Virginia (See also, A Plague of Grackles).
Grackle is the common name of any of eleven passerine birds native to North and South America, which belong to a variety of genera in the icterid family. Redwing blackbirds are also in the icterid family. In all the species with this name, adult males have black or mostly black plumage. Grackles are sometimes mistaken for blackbirds. Starlings, also members of the passerine family, have sometimes been known as Grackles. Starling are also passerine birds.
Passerine birds amount to about half of bird species (about 6,600), and are distinguished by a bird foot that has three toes forward and one toe pointing backwards. The northern cardinal or Cardinalis cardinalis is also a passerine.
Kroger tackling grackle issue outside of store.
The horror-thriller film The Birds (1963) was directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock. The blond actress who appears in the playground scene in the first video below, and appears catatonic after being attacked by the birds in the third video below is Tippi Hedren, mother of Melanie Griffith.
Crows on the Playground – The Birds movie clip (1963) .
Crows attack the students in The Birds movie clip (1963).
The Birds movie clip – Unending Terror (1963).
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