Common Grackles in Virginia

Common Grackles live in Virginia all year. Moderate winters with periodic snow; purple finches and occasional northern finches visit feeders. That makes the cold months the time your yard matters most to them: their winter diet shifts toward waste grain and acorns.

Humid subtropical in the east, cooler and snowier in the Blue Ridge and Allegheny highlands.

Across Virginia, 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.

Warm, humid summers; House Wrens and hummingbirds breed statewide.

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

Of the regional native plants we track for Virginia, 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 Virginia's winter: Moderate winters with periodic snow; purple finches and occasional northern finches visit feeders.

Full diet breakdown for grackles · Best feeder for grackles