Common Grackles in Louisiana

Common Grackles live in Louisiana all year. Mild winters make Louisiana a major wintering ground for sparrows, wrens, and even western hummingbirds. 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 coastal marsh, bottomland hardwood forest and piney uplands in the north.

Across Louisiana, grackles typically nest from March–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.

Very hot, humid summers and hurricane season June–November.

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

Of the regional native plants we track for Louisiana, 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 Louisiana's winter: Mild winters make Louisiana a major wintering ground for sparrows, wrens, and even western hummingbirds.

Full diet breakdown for grackles · Best feeder for grackles