Photography
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Grackle (boat-tailed)
Female
Male/Female
Lake Charles, LA. 2012
The Boat-tailed Grackle has an odd mating system: harem defense polygyny. Females cluster their nests, and the males compete to defend the entire colony and mate there. The most dominant male gets most of the copulations in a system similar to that used by many deer. But all is not as simple as it seems. Although the dominant male may get up to 87% of the copulations at a colony, DNA fingerprinting shows that he actually sires only about 25% of the young in the colony. Most of the young are fathered by noncolony males away from the colonies.
NV Whino
(20,886 posts)Great shots.
Solly Mack
(90,780 posts)The 2nd and 3rd photos show the loser in a fight. It was 2 on 1 in the rain. They were fighting in the grass and in the trees. Poor guy just got his little feathered fanny kicked.
This is what he looked like when he first got away. Shaking off the water and licking his wounds.
NV Whino
(20,886 posts)TBF
(32,089 posts)love the black/green contrast