Bird
Boat-tailed Grackle
Quiscalus major
Lives in Louisiana all year and nests here. Found in 18 of 64 parishes, across 11 habitats.
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- 18 of 64 parishes
- Habitats
- 11

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- 18 of 64 parishes
- Habitats
- 11
- Habitat models
- Year-round
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in Louisiana 11
Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.
Open, wet, seepage-fed bogs of the Coastal Plain and Sandhills, often with pitcher plants.
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.
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.
Floodplain and bottomland forests
Forests on low ground beside rivers and streams that flood from time to time.
Still water and its edges: ponds, lakes, millponds and reservoirs.
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.
Forested wetlands with standing water much of the year, such as cypress and gum swamps.
Flat, poorly drained uplands and terraces with oaks, sweetgum and sometimes loblolly pine, wet in winter and dry in summer, but neither a floodplain nor a swamp.
Salt-pruned forests and shrub thickets behind coastal dunes.
Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground
Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.
Other habitats in its models (57)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Louisiana.
- 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.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Year-round.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Year-round.
- Unconsolidated Shore Year-round.
- Southeast Florida Beach Year-round.
- South Florida Shell Hash Beach Year-round.
- Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Year-round.
- Southwest Florida Beach Year-round.
- Texas Coastal Bend Beach Year-round.
- Southwest Florida Coastal Strand and Maritime Hammock Year-round.
- Southeast Florida Coastal Strand and Maritime Hammock Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain 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.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern 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.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Dune and Maritime Grassland Year-round.
- Southwest Florida Dune and Coastal Grassland Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Dune and Coastal Grassland 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 Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Year-round.
- Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Year-round.
- Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Nupea Modifier Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded Swamp Year-round.
- South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Year-round.
- Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Year-round.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Year-round.
- Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Wooded Swamp Year-round.
- South Florida Mangrove Swamp Year-round.
- South Florida Bayhead Swamp Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Forested Wetland Year-round.
- South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Savanna and Wet Prairie Year-round.
- South Florida Cypress Dome Year-round.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Depression Pondshore Year-round.
- South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Blackwater Stream Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Hydric Hammock Year-round.
Seasons in Louisiana
- Year-round: nests here, in 18 of 64 parishes.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 345
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Louisiana. Shared habitat, not food.
- Macranthera flammeaMacranthera flammea
- Southern MagnoliaMagnolia grandiflora
- Sweetbay MagnoliaMagnolia virginiana
- Virginia CreeperParthenocissus quinquefolia
- Canadian ClearweedPilea pumila
- Pinus elliottii var. elliottiiPinus elliottii var. elliottii
- Planer-treePlanera aquatica
- Swamp CottonwoodPopulus heterophylla
- Laurel OakQuercus laurifolia
- Water OakQuercus nigra
- Dwarf PalmettoSabal minor
- Black WillowSalix nigra
- Lizard's-tailSaururus cernuus
- Saltmeadow CordgrassSpartina patens
- Pond CypressTaxodium ascendens
- Poison-ivyToxicodendron radicans
- American ElmUlmus americana
- Scaleleaf False FoxgloveAgalinis aphylla
- Longleaf Three-awnAristida palustris
- Giant CaneArundinaria gigantea
- Cypress-knee SedgeCarex decomposita
- Southern Waxy SedgeCarex glaucescens
- Bladder SedgeCarex intumescens
- Cypress-swamp SedgeCarex joorii
Wildlife 282
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Louisiana. Not sighting records.
- Black-crowned Night-heronNycticorax nycticorax
- Common NighthawkChordeiles minor
- Great Horned OwlBubo virginianus
- Yellow-crowned Night-heronNyctanassa violacea
- American Black DuckAnas rubripes
- Canada GooseBranta canadensis
- Chimney SwiftChaetura pelagica
- Eastern KingbirdTyrannus tyrannus
- Great EgretArdea alba
- Tree SwallowTachycineta bicolor
- American CootFulica americana
- American PipitAnthus rubescens
- Bald EagleHaliaeetus leucocephalus
- CanvasbackAythya valisineria
- Common YellowthroatGeothlypis trichas
- Cooper's HawkAccipiter cooperii
- Great Blue HeronArdea herodias
- Green HeronButorides virescens
- Least SandpiperCalidris minutilla
- Mottled DuckAnas fulvigula
- Northern CardinalCardinalis cardinalis
- OspreyPandion haliaetus
- Red-tailed HawkButeo jamaicensis
- Red-winged BlackbirdAgelaius phoeniceus
NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP year-round habitat model for Boat-tailed Grackle
- USGS Gap Analysis Project range maps (2001), modeled by watershed; migratory gives no dates
- NatureServe Explorer (CC BY 4.0), habitat names
- US Census TIGER/Line counties
- Names follow the USGS Gap Analysis Project (2001)











































