Common Grackles in Arkansas

Common Grackles live in Arkansas all year. Mild winters with occasional ice storms that make suet and sheltered feeders critical for a few days at a time. That makes the cold months the time your yard matters most to them: their winter diet shifts toward waste grain and acorns.

Humid subtropical, with the Ozark and Ouachita highlands in the northwest and the flat Mississippi Delta in the east.

Across Arkansas, grackles typically nest from April–June. Nest site: bulky cup in dense conifers, often in loose colonies. Females lay 4–6 eggs, incubate for 13–14 days, and young leave the nest after 12–15 days.

Hot, humid summers; shade nest boxes in the Delta.

• Common Grackles don't use nest boxes. Keep dense native shrubs and trees such as white oak, bur oak for nest sites.
• Delay heavy pruning of shrubs until after June.

Of the regional native plants we track for Arkansas, these 8 provide food or cover grackles use:

Grackles arrive in flocks and can dominate open feeders; weight-activated and caged feeders help keep smaller birds fed.

• Best foods: Cracked corn, Sunflower.
• In Arkansas's winter: Mild winters with occasional ice storms that make suet and sheltered feeders critical for a few days at a time.

Full diet breakdown for grackles · Best feeder for grackles