Rare Bird: Rare Common Grackle in Kamloops

The bird showed up in very poor light, Nov. 11. I was uncertain of its identification, so gave a verbal description to a local expert. He suggested a Rusty Blackbird. I had seen some of those in my yard in the past. This one was different. The bird was around early mornings and late evenings. I tried for some photos, but they were too poor for ID. On Nov. 13, it came to feed below my feeder in good light, and I got the photo submitted. When I passed this to our local expert, he thought it might be a Brewer’s Blackbird, but was unsure, so sent the photo to Chris Sidwell in the Okanagan who suggested the Common Grackle. It was obvious, but because this species has only been recorded a couple of times in the past 35 years around Kamloops, I think we were reluctant to jumpt to conclusions.