Family New World Blackbirds (Icteridae)
Least Concern
Carib Grackle (Quiscalus lugubris)
Taxonomy
French: Quiscale merle German: Trauergrackel Spanish: Zanate caribeño
Taxonomy:
Quiscalus lugubris
Swainson
, 1838,Guyana
.
Subspecies and Distribution
Q. l. guadeloupensis
Lawrence, 1879 – NC Lesser Antilles (Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Marie Galante, Dominica and Martinique).
Q. l. inflexirostris
Swainson, 1838 – St Lucia, in C Lesser Antilles.
Q. l. luminosus
Lawrence, 1878 – the Grenadines and Grenada (S Lesser Antilles) and Los Testigos (off NE Venezuela).
Q. l. orquillensis
(Cory, 1909) – Los Hermanos, off N Venezuela.
Q. l. insularis
Richmond, 1896 – Margarita I and Los Frailes, off NE Venezuela.
Q. l. lugubris
Swainson, 1838 – Carib Grackle – mainland Venezuela (S to middle and lower R Orinoco), N & NE Colombia (Orinoco Basin in Arauca and Vichada, spreading N to Guajira Peninsula and S to Meta), Trinidad and Tobago (perhaps introduced), and E along coasts of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana to N Brazil (Amapá); also, possibly natural expansion from Venezuela, to Leeward Antilles (Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire).
Q. l. contrusus
(J. L. Peters, 1925) – St Vincent, in S Lesser Antilles.
Q. l. fortirostris
Lawrence, 1869 – Barbados Grackle – #R#RBarbados, in S Lesser Antilles.
Introduced (race fortirostris) in N Lesser Antilles (N of Montserrat); nominate race said to have been introduced on Tobago from Trinidad.
Descriptive notes
Male average 26 cm, 66–80 g; female average 21·7 cm, 49–58 g. Male nominate race is entirely black with strong violet gloss, slightly less glossy on... read more
Voice
Noisy. Male song varies considerably geographically, but generally a series of squeaky notes. In... read more
Habitat
Open woodland and scrub, pastures, plantations, palm groves, parks and gardens, urban and suburban... read more
Food and feeding
Opportunistic and omnivorous, feeding on arthropods, small vertebrates, seeds and fruits. Vertebrates taken include Anolis lizards... read more
Breeding
Breeds almost throughout year, mostly May–Sept in Trinidad and Jun–Jul in Venezuelan llanos. Monogamous, possibly... read more
Movements
Resident. In highly seasonal environments such as Venezuelan llanos, some local movements... read more
Status and conservation
Not globally threatened. Common to very common throughout range; locally abundant. Thrives in many modified environments. Race fortirostris was successfully... read more
Formerly placed with Q. niger in a separate genus, Holoquiscalus, but recent genetic analyses indicate present species is more closely related to Q. nicaraguensis than to other congeners. Races form two groups, “fortirostris group” (including contrusus), with blackish-brown females, and “lugubris group” (remaining six races), with paler brownish females; sometimes thought to represent two separate species, but female coloration evidently variable. Further, a molecular (mtDNA) comparison of some mainland races with island ones revealed sequence divergence of 3.9%, indicating prolonged isolation, but many island races not examined; mtDNA of two individuals from Barbados resembled distant Trinidad individuals, perhaps reflecting human introduction. More information required. Proposed race dispar (described from Kingstown, on St Vincent) refers to occasional vagrants of fortirostris. Eight subspecies recognized.