These black birds are called great-tailed grackles.
KRIS 6 NEWS If you live near Saratoga and Staples this sight is probably all too familiar. KRIS 6 spoke to Liam Wolff who is a Research Specialist at the Hart Research Institute at TAMU-CC and he gave me a few reasons as to why they have flooded the area.
“The HEB has this big asphalt parking lot and the asphalt parking lot is warm. And not only does it provide them with warmth when they’re roosting together at night, but it’s also really large, so it gives them a lot of area for a large group of birds to roost at night,” said Wolff.
So what is roosting?
“[Birds] sitting together, staying warm, sleeping, a lot birds don’t actually sleep when they’re roosting,” said Wolff.
KRIS 6 NEWS Wolff explained that it’s the reason you start seeing them in droves around dusk.
“That’s the time when they’re coming in, settling down for the night. At night time they’re more susceptible to predation,” said Wolff.
He also explained that these birds are in the Corpus Christi area year-round, but tells us why you don’t see as many during the spring and summer seasons.
“The females will leave the roost in March and then they’ll go incubate eggs, they’ll sit on their nest you know, and the males will stay at the roost,” said Wolff.