Greater Antillean grackle
The Greater Antillean grackle (Quiscalus niger) is a grackle found throughout the Greater Antilles as well as smaller, nearby islands. Like all Quiscalus grackles, it is a rather large, gregarious bird.[2] It lives largely in heavily settled areas. It is also known as the 'kling-kling'.[3]
Greater Antillean grackle | |
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Q. n. gundlachii, Cayo Coco, Cuba | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Icteridae |
Genus: | Quiscalus |
Species: | Q. niger |
Binomial name | |
Quiscalus niger (Boddaert, 1783) | |
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Range of Q. niger |
Taxonomy
The Irish physician, naturalist and collector Hans Sloane stayed in Jamaica between 1687 and 1689. During his visit, he collected specimens and made notes on the plants and animals.[4] Based on these notes, the ornithologist John Ray published a short description of the Greater Antillean grackle in 1713, using the Latin name Monedula tota nigra[5] but it was not until 1725, more than 35 years after his visit, that Sloane himself published a description of the grackle. He reported that it was common on the road between St. Jago de la Vega (Spanish Town) and Passage-Fort (Portmore).[6]
In 1775 the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon described the Greater Antillean grackle in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux.[7] The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.[8] Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Oriolus niger in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées.[9] Buffon's specimen was probably collected in the French colony of Saint-Domingue which occupied the western end of Haiti. In 1921 the American ornithologist James L. Peters restricted the type locality to Port-au-Prince in Haiti.[10]
The Greater Antillean grackle is now one of six species placed in the genus Quiscalus, that was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1816.[11][12] The genus name is from the specific name Gracula quiscula coined by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus for the common grackle; the specific niger is Latin for "black".[13][14]
There are seven subspecies, each restricted to one island or island group.[12] They differ from the nominate Q. n. niger subspecies in size, bill size, and colour tone.
- Q. n. caribaeus – (Todd, 1916): found in western Cuba and on Isla de Juventud
- Q. n. gundlachii – Cassin, 1867: found in central and eastern Cuba
- Q. n. caymanensis – Cory, 1886: found on Grand Cayman Island
- Q. n. bangsi – (Peters, JL, 1921): found on Little Cayman Island
- Q. n. crassirostris – Swainson, 1838: found in Jamaica
- Q. n. niger – (Boddaert, 1783): nominate, found on Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti)
- Q. n. brachypterus – Cassin, 1867: found in Puerto Rico
Description
The 27 cm (11 in)-long male is glossy black with a large rudder-like tail; the 24 cm (9.4 in)-long female has a smaller tail and is similar in color but less glossy than the male. The eye is yellow and is the only non-black body part. The Greater Antillean Grackle is a generalist eater; they eat fruit, bread, plant matter, and both small vertebrates and invertebrates alike.
Gallery
- Adult
- In San Juan, Puerto Rico
- In Cuba
- In Puerto Rico
- In Jamaica
- In Jamaica
See also
- Fauna of Puerto Rico
- List of Puerto Rican birds
- List of Vieques birds
References
- BirdLife International (2012). "Quiscalus niger". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Bond, James (1993). Birds of the West Indies (fifth ed.). Houghton-Mifflin. ISBN 978-0618002108.
- Douglas, Marcia B. (Marcia Bernice), 1961-. Electricity comes to cocoa bottom. OCLC 30995689.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- MacGregor, Arthur (23 September 2004). "Sloane, Sir Hans, baronet". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25730. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- Ray, John (1713). Synopsis methodica avium & piscium (in Latin). London: William Innys. p. 185, No. 28.
- Sloane, Hans (1725). A voyage to the islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica. Volume 2. London: Printed for the author. p. 299 No. XIV.
- Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc de (1775). "Le troupiale noir". Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux (in French). Volume 5. Paris: De L'Imprimerie Royale. p. 301.
- Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc de; Martinet, François-Nicolas; Daubenton, Edme-Louis; Daubenton, Louis-Jean-Marie (1765–1783). "Troupiale noir, de St. Domingue". Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle. Volume 6. Paris: De L'Imprimerie Royale. Plate 534.
- Boddaert, Pieter (1783). Table des planches enluminéez d'histoire naturelle de M. D'Aubenton : avec les denominations de M.M. de Buffon, Brisson, Edwards, Linnaeus et Latham, precedé d'une notice des principaux ouvrages zoologiques enluminés (in French). Utrecht. p. 31, Number 534.
- Peters, James L. (1921). "A review of the grackles of the genus Holoquiscalus" (PDF). Auk. 38 (3): 435–453 [445]. doi:10.2307/4073768. JSTOR 4073768.
- Vieillot, Louis Jean Pierre (1816). Analyse d'une Nouvelle Ornithologie Elementaire (in French). Paris: Deterville/self. p. 36.
- Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Oropendolas, orioles, blackbirds". IOC World Bird List Version 9.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
- Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Volume 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 109.
- Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 270, 328–329. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Quiscalus niger. |
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Wikispecies has information related to Quiscalus niger |
- BirdLife species factsheet for Quiscalus niger
- "Greater Antillean grackle media". Internet Bird Collection.
- Greater Antillean grackle photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel University)
- Greater Antillean grackle species account at Neotropical Birds (Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
- Audio recordings of Greater Antillean grackle on Xeno-canto.