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Bird

Boat-tailed Grackle

Quiscalus major

Lives in Virginia all year and nests here. Found in 31 of 133 counties and cities, across 12 habitats.

Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
31 of 133 counties and cities
Habitats
12

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
31 of 133 counties and cities
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 Virginia 12

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

1 of 12

Coastal dunes and beaches

Core Banks dunes, June 2013
Year-roundAtlantic Coastal Plain Northern Sandy Beach; Unconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Interdunal WetlandDune grassland. Shown: Core Banks, Cape Lookout, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Core Banks dunes, June 2013, Jarek Tuszyński, June 2013. CC BY-SA 3.0. Source record.

Ponds, lakes and their shores

Yellow butterwort beside a moss-hung coastal pond
Year-roundOpen Water (Fresh)Regional / representative. Shown: Southern coastal pond margins, Florida and Louisiana to North Carolina; state not identified, a neighboring state.Yellow butterwort beside a moss-hung coastal pond, Marian Ellis Rowan, 1901. Public domain. Source record.

Salt and brackish marshes

Fort Fisher brackish marsh and woodland edge
Year-roundAtlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt MarshBrackish marsh at a woodland edge. Shown: Fort Fisher, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Fort Fisher brackish marsh and woodland edge, ncwetlands.org, undated. CC0 1.0. 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 Northern Tidal Wooded SwampNamed place / source context. Shown: Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, as titled by Museum of Fine Arts Boston; nineteenth-century artistic interpretation, a neighboring state.View, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, Regis Francois Gignoux, 1850. Public domain. Source record.

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 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-roundAtlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline 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)

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; Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Maritime Forest

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 (59)

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

  • 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 Southern Beach Year-round.
  • Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Year-round.
  • Unconsolidated Shore Year-round.
  • Upper Texas Coast Beach Year-round.
  • Louisiana Beach 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.
  • Mississippi Delta 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.
  • Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal 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.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Year-round.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Tidal Wooded Swamp Year-round.
  • South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Year-round.
  • Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Year-round.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Year-round.
  • Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Year-round.
  • South Florida Mangrove Swamp Year-round.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Large River Swamp Year-round.
  • South Florida Bayhead Swamp Year-round.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp Year-round.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog 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.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Cypress Dome Year-round.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore 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.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Hydric Hammock Year-round.
  • Mississippi River Floodplain and Riparian Forest Year-round.
  • Lower Mississippi River Flatwoods Year-round, only within 1,000 m of water.

All habitats

Seasons in Virginia

  • Year-round: nests here, in 31 of 133 counties and cities.

Also found in this habitat

Plants 175

Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Virginia. Shared habitat, not food.

Wildlife 262

Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Virginia. Not sighting records.

NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.

Sources