Greater Antillean grackle

The Greater Antillean grackle (Quiscalus niger) is a grackle found throughout the Greater Antilles as well as smaller, nearby islands. Like all Quiscalus grackles, it is a rather large, gregarious bird.[2] It lives largely in heavily settled areas. It is also known as the 'kling-kling', and 'chinchilín' in the Dominican Republic.[3]

Greater Antillean grackle
Q. n. gundlachii, Cayo Coco, Cuba

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Icteridae
Genus: Quiscalus
Species:
Q. niger
Binomial name
Quiscalus niger
(Boddaert, 1783)
Range of Q. niger

Taxonomy

The Irish physician, naturalist and collector Hans Sloane stayed in Jamaica between 1687 and 1689. During his visit, he collected specimens and made notes on the plants and animals.[4] Based on these notes, the ornithologist John Ray published a short description of the Greater Antillean grackle in 1713, using the Latin name Monedula tota nigra[5] but it was not until 1725, more than 35 years after his visit, that Sloane himself published a description of the grackle. He reported that it was common on the road between St. Jago de la Vega (Spanish Town) and Passage-Fort (Portmore).[6]

In 1775 the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon described the Greater Antillean grackle in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux.[7] The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.[8] Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Oriolus niger in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées.[9] Buffon's specimen was probably collected in the French colony of Saint-Domingue which occupied the western end of Haiti. In 1921 the American ornithologist James L. Peters restricted the type locality to Port-au-Prince in Haiti.[10]

The Greater Antillean grackle is now one of seven species placed in the genus Quiscalus (six extant and one extinct), that was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1816.[11][12] The genus name is from the specific name Gracula quiscula coined by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus for the common grackle; the specific niger is Latin for "black".[13][14]

There are seven subspecies, each restricted to one island or island group.[12] They differ from the nominate subspecies (Q. n. niger) in size, bill size, and colour tone.

Description

The 27 cm (11 in)-long male is glossy black with a large rudder-like tail; the 24 cm (9.4 in)-long female has a smaller tail and is similar in color, but less glossy than the male. The eye is yellow and is the only non-black body part. The Greater Antillean grackle is a generalist eater; it eats fruits, bread, plant matter, and both small vertebrates and invertebrates alike.

  • Adult
  • In San Juan, Puerto Rico
  • In Cuba
  • In Puerto Rico
  • In Jamaica
  • In Jamaica
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See also

References
  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Quiscalus niger". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Bond, James (1993). Birds of the West Indies (fifth ed.). Houghton-Mifflin. ISBN 978-0618002108.
  3. Douglas, Marcia B. (Marcia Bernice), 1961-. Electricity comes to cocoa bottom. OCLC 30995689.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. MacGregor, Arthur (23 September 2004). "Sloane, Sir Hans, baronet". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25730. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. Ray, John (1713). Synopsis methodica avium & piscium (in Latin). London: William Innys. p. 185, No. 28.
  6. Sloane, Hans (1725). A voyage to the islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica. Volume 2. London: Printed for the author. p. 299 No. XIV.
  7. Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc de (1775). "Le troupiale noir". Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux (in French). Volume 5. Paris: De L'Imprimerie Royale. p. 301.
  8. Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc de; Martinet, François-Nicolas; Daubenton, Edme-Louis; Daubenton, Louis-Jean-Marie (1765–1783). "Troupiale noir, de St. Domingue". Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle. Volume 6. Paris: De L'Imprimerie Royale. Plate 534.
  9. Boddaert, Pieter (1783). Table des planches enluminéez d'histoire naturelle de M. D'Aubenton : avec les denominations de M.M. de Buffon, Brisson, Edwards, Linnaeus et Latham, precedé d'une notice des principaux ouvrages zoologiques enluminés (in French). Utrecht. p. 31, Number 534.
  10. Peters, James L. (1921). "A review of the grackles of the genus Holoquiscalus" (PDF). Auk. 38 (3): 435–453 [445]. doi:10.2307/4073768. JSTOR 4073768.
  11. Vieillot, Louis Jean Pierre (1816). Analyse d'une Nouvelle Ornithologie Elementaire (in French). Paris: Deterville/self. p. 36.
  12. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Oropendolas, orioles, blackbirds". IOC World Bird List Version 9.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  13. Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Volume 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 109.
  14. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 270, 328–329. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
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