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Bird

Boat-tailed Grackle

Quiscalus major

Lives in North Carolina all year and nests here. Found in 25 of 100 counties, across 12 habitats.

Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
25 of 100 counties
Habitats
12

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
25 of 100 counties
Habitats
12
Habitat models
Year-round

Where it lives

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

Habitats in North Carolina 12

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

1 of 12

Floodplain and bottomland forests

fallen (uprooted) tree
Year-roundAtlantic Coastal Plain Blackwater Stream Floodplain Forest - Forest ModifierNamed place / source context. Shown: Congaree Swamp National Monument floodplain forest, South Carolina; representative illustration, no exact viewpoint, a neighboring state.fallen (uprooted) tree, John Dawson, by1988. Public domain. Source record.

Ponds, lakes and their shores

Georgia pond and emergent wetland
Year-roundOpen Water (Fresh)Regional / 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.

Swamps

View, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina
Year-roundGulf and Atlantic Coastal Plain Swamp Systems; Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded Swamp; Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Forested WetlandNamed place / source context. Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, as titled by Museum of Fine Arts Boston; nineteenth-century artistic interpretationView, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, Regis Francois Gignoux, 1850. Public domain. Source record.

Coastal dunes and beaches

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

Year-roundAtlantic Coastal Plain Northern Sandy Beach; Unconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Dune and Maritime Grassland; Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Interdunal Wetland

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-roundAtlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland; 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

Freshwater tidal marshes

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

Year-roundAtlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh

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 Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish 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

Black Mountainlabel QS:Len,"Black Mountain"
Year-roundOnly within 1,000 m of water.Developed, Open Space; Cultivated Cropland; Pasture/HayLyell Carr, Black Mountain: a pasture and hayfield with a log barn, rail fence and grazing cow below the Black Mountains. Black Mountain, North Carolina (Lyell E. Carr)Black Mountainlabel QS:Len,"Black Mountain", Lyell Carr, c. 1890-1912. Public domain. Source record.

Maritime forests and thickets

Salt-pruned forests and shrub thickets behind coastal dunes.

Year-roundOnly within 1,000 m of water.Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Maritime Forest
Other habitats in its models (58)

Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in North Carolina. Those recorded in North Carolina first, the rest by region.

Elsewhere in the South (43)
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Year-round.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Wooded Swamp Year-round.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Year-round.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Year-round.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Maritime Forest Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Year-round.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Year-round.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Year-round.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Dune and Coastal Grassland Year-round.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Maritime Forest Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Savanna and Wet Prairie Year-round.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Tidal Wooded Swamp Year-round.
  • Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Year-round.
  • Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Year-round.
  • Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation Year-round.
  • Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Year-round.
  • Louisiana Beach Year-round.
  • Lower Mississippi River Flatwoods Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
  • Mississippi Delta Maritime Forest Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
  • Mississippi River Bottomland Depression Year-round.
  • Mississippi River Low Floodplain (Bottomland) Forest Year-round.
  • Mississippi River Riparian Forest Year-round.
  • Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Year-round.
  • South Florida Bayhead Swamp Year-round.
  • South Florida Cypress Dome Year-round.
  • South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Year-round.
  • South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Year-round.
  • South Florida Mangrove Swamp Year-round.
  • South Florida Shell Hash Beach Year-round.
  • South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Year-round.
  • Southeast Florida Beach Year-round.
  • Southeast Florida Coastal Strand and Maritime Hammock Year-round.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog Year-round.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Hydric Hammock Year-round.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp Year-round.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Cypress Dome Year-round.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Year-round.
  • Southwest Florida Beach Year-round.
  • Southwest Florida Coastal Strand and Maritime Hammock Year-round.
  • Southwest Florida Dune and Coastal Grassland Year-round.
  • Texas Coastal Bend Beach Year-round.
  • Upper Texas Coast Beach Year-round.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Large River Swamp Year-round.
Northeast (4)
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Year-round.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Maritime Forest Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Year-round.
  • Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Dune and Swale Year-round.
Land cover and other classes (11)
  • Developed, Low Intensity Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
  • Developed, Medium Intensity 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.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Year-round.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Year-round.
  • Florida Longleaf Pine Sandhill - Scrub/Shrub Understory Modifier Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
  • Introduced Upland Vegetation - Perennial Grassland and Forbland Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.
  • Mississippi River Floodplain and Riparian Forest Year-round.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Nupea Modifier Year-round.
  • Unconsolidated Shore Year-round.
  • Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Year-round.

All habitats

Seasons in North Carolina

  • Year-round: nests here, in 25 of 100 counties.

Food plants

Diet records by plant genus, from studies across North America. Not a record from this state. Plants matched by genus.

Native plants in these genera 16

Plant genera in its diet records (6)
  • Zea Seeds. 6 diet records. 0 native plants in North Carolina
  • Brasenia Seeds. 4 diet records. 1 native plant in North Carolina
  • Sorghum Seeds. 4 diet records. 0 native plants in North Carolina
  • Lemna 2 diet records. 7 native plants in North Carolina
  • Morella Seeds. 2 diet records. 3 native plants in North Carolina
  • Hydrocotyle Seeds. 1 diet record. 5 native plants in North Carolina

Avian Diet Database (Hurlbert Lab), CC0 1.0.

Also found in its main habitats

Its main habitats in North Carolina, by how much of its habitat model each one is, with the birds most characteristic of each and the plants that grow wild there. Shared habitat, not food.

Coastal dunes and beaches

Birds 112

Plants 132

All of coastal dunes and beaches in North Carolina

Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground

Birds 89

Plants 1314

All of roadsides, fields and disturbed ground in North Carolina

Swamps

Birds 69

Plants 329

All of swamps in North Carolina

USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.

Sources