Bird

Boat-tailed Grackle

Quiscalus major

Lives in Florida all year and nests here. Found in all 67 counties, across 17 habitats.

Here: All year
Nesting: Nests here
Range: All 67 counties
Habitats: 17

Male Boat-tailed Grackle, whole bird — **Male**. (c) Donald Davesne, some rights reserved (CC BY). CC BY. iNaturalist photo 545461576. iNaturalist large derivative; no local crop or retouch.

At a glance

Group: Birds
Here: All year
Nesting: Nests here
Range: All 67 counties
Habitats: 17
Habitat models: Year-round

Where it lives

The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.

Habitats in Florida 17

Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.

1 of 17

Year-roundSouthern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Nupea Modifier; South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh; Floridian Highlands Freshwater MarshRegional / representative. Shown: Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Georgia; representative pond ecosystem, a neighboring state.Georgia pond and emergent wetland, Robert 'Bob' Hynes, 1997. Public domain. Source record.

Year-roundSouthern Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall; East Gulf Coastal Plain Tidal Wooded Swamp; Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plain Swamp Systems; Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded Swamp; South Florida Bayhead Swamp; Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp; South Florida Cypress Dome; Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Cypress DomeRegional / representative. Shown: Southern coastal swamps, Florida to Virginia; state not identified, a neighboring state.Loblolly bay in a coastal swamp, Marian Ellis Rowan, 1901. Public domain. Source record.

Coastal dunes and beaches

Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.

Year-roundAtlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach; Unconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Southeast Florida Beach; South Florida Shell Hash Beach; Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation; Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach; Southwest Florida Beach; Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Dune and Maritime Grassland; Southwest Florida Dune and Coastal Grassland; East Gulf Coastal Plain Dune and Coastal Grassland; Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Interdunal Wetland

Coastal Plain hammocks

Dense, evergreen groves of live oak, magnolia and other hardwoods in the southern Coastal Plain, from dry oak domes to wet hydric hammocks and south Florida's tropical hammocks; salt-shaped maritime hammocks are maritime forests.

Year-roundSouthern Coastal Plain Hydric Hammock

Coastal Plain seepage bogs

Open, wet, seepage-fed bogs of the Coastal Plain and Sandhills, often with pitcher plants.

Year-roundSouthern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog

Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)

Tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the source does not say whether the water is fresh, brackish or salt. A stated salinity files the marsh under freshwater tidal marshes or salt and brackish marshes instead.

Year-round

Depression ponds and limesinks

Shallow ponds in Coastal Plain depressions, such as limesinks and the ponds in some Carolina bays, that rise and fall with the seasons.

Year-roundCentral Florida Herbaceous Pondshore; Atlantic Coastal Plain Depression Pondshore

Disturbed and introduced wetlands

Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.

Year-round

Floodplain and bottomland forests

Forests on low ground beside rivers and streams that flood from time to time.

Year-roundAtlantic Coastal Plain Blackwater Stream Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier

Freshwater tidal marshes

Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.

Year-roundFlorida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh

Mangrove swamps

Tidal forests and thickets of red, black and white mangrove along sheltered tropical and subtropical shores.

Year-round

Maritime forests and thickets

Salt-pruned forests and shrub thickets behind coastal dunes.

Year-roundSouthwest Florida Coastal Strand and Maritime Hammock; Southeast Florida Coastal Strand and Maritime Hammock; East Gulf Coastal Plain Maritime Forest; Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Maritime Forest

Pine savannas

Open, fire-kept longleaf pine stands over grasses and wildflowers on wet to moist sandy soil.

Year-roundEast Gulf Coastal Plain Savanna and Wet Prairie

Salt and brackish marshes

Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.

Year-roundAtlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh; Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh; Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh

Sounds, bays and tidal flats

Salt and brackish open water of sounds, bays and estuaries, with the mud and sand flats and seagrass beds that tides cover and uncover; the vegetated marsh is salt and brackish marshes.

Year-roundOpen Water (Brackish/Salt)

Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground

Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.

Year-roundOnly within 1,000 m of water.Developed, Open Space; Cultivated Cropland; Pasture/Hay

Other habitats in its models (34)

Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Florida.

Developed, Low Intensity Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
Developed, Medium Intensity Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Sandy Beach Year-round.
Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Year-round.
Unconsolidated Shore Year-round.
Upper Texas Coast Beach Year-round.
Louisiana Beach Year-round.
Texas Coastal Bend Beach Year-round.
Mississippi Delta Maritime Forest Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Maritime Forest Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Maritime Forest Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
Florida Longleaf Pine Sandhill - Scrub/Shrub Understory Modifier Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Upland Longleaf Pine Woodland - Scrub/Shrub Modifier Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Year-round.
Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Dune and Swale Year-round.
Introduced Upland Vegetation - Perennial Grassland and Forbland Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Year-round.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Year-round.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Year-round.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Year-round.
Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Year-round.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Year-round.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Wooded Swamp Year-round.
West Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Large River Swamp Year-round.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Forested Wetland Year-round.
South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Year-round.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Year-round.
Mississippi River Bottomland Depression Year-round.
South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Year-round.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Year-round.
Mississippi River Riparian Forest Year-round.
Mississippi River Low Floodplain (Bottomland) Forest Year-round.
Mississippi River Floodplain and Riparian Forest Year-round.
Lower Mississippi River Flatwoods Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.