Great-tailed Grackles

/

Adult males have an iridescent bluish purple body, distinctive yellow eyes, a flat-headed profile and a broad bill. The long tapered tail can be folded into what some call a keel shape. Females are much smaller than the males. They are dark brown above but paler below. The stripe above the eye is buff-colored as is the throat.

Great-tailed Grackle, NABA International Butterfly Park, TX - November, 2009
Nikon D300, 300mm f/4 lens with 1.4x tc, 1/160 sec at f/6.3, ISO 800

Great-tailed Grackle, NABA International Butterfly Park, TX - November, 2009
Nikon D300, 300mm f/4 lens with 1.4x tc, 1/200 sec at f/6.3, ISO 800

Female Great-tailed Grackle - Bolivar Peninsula, TX - September 2013
Nikon D7100, 300mm f/4 lens with 1.7x tc, 1/1600 sec at f/9, ISO 800

Female Great-tailed Grackle - TX
Nikon D4, 500mm f/4 with 1.4x tc, 1/800 sec at f/8, ISO 1100

Great-tailed Grackle, North Jetty Bolivar Peninsula, TX - November, 2016
Nikon D500, 500mm f/4 lens with 1.4x tc, 1/2500 sec, f/7.1, ISO 720

/ /

David Sparks

I retired in 2005 after 40 years of research and teaching at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (24 years), the University of Pennsylvania (8 years) and the Baylor College of Medicine (8 years). Photography is my retirement hobby.

Nature photography, especially bird photography, combines a number of things that I really enjoy: bird-watching, being outdoors, photography, travel, messing about with computers, and learning new skills and concepts.  I now spend much of my time engaged in these activities.

David Sibley in the preface to The Sibley Guide to Birds wrote "Birds are beautiful, in spectacular as well as subtle ways; their colors, shapes, actions, and sounds are among the most aesthetically pleasing in nature."  My goal is to acquire images that capture the beauty and uniqueness of selected species as well as images that highlight the engaging behaviors the birds exhibit.