BRONZED GRACKLE 403 



Adult winter plumage acquired by a complete post-nuptial moult beginning 

 the first of August. Indistinguishable from first winter. 



Adult nuptial plumage acquired by wear as in the young bird. 



Female. — In juvenal dress the female is perhaps paler below than is the male 

 and usually indistinctly streaked. There is a complete post juvenal moult and 

 later plumages differ from the male in being much duller and browner with few 

 metallic reflections. They also show more wear. 



H. B. Wood (1945) made a study of the molt of 146 grackles which 

 he trapped at Harrisburg, Pa., between March 19 and September 18, 

 1944: 



Evidence of molting, with new feathers, first appeared on July 23. The molt- 

 ing period extended until mid-September and with other observed grackles until 

 mid-October. The first feathers molted were those along the edge of the wing, 

 the last were the central tail feathers. * * * the sequence of molting was deter- 

 mined to be in the following order of feather groups: lesser wing-coverts, greater 

 coverts, secondaries, forehead, crown, nape, rump, primary-coverts, upper tail- 

 coverts, cheeks, neck, back, belly, under tail coverts, scapulars, proximal pri- 

 maries, breast, chin, and finally the distal remiges and then the median rectrices. 



The old axillars were retained by some birds until all but the primaries and 

 rectrices were completed. * * * Practically all the birds exhibited great regu- 

 larity in their molting areas. The proximal remiges were shed and regained 

 quickly, but the distal four were lost in regular order and slowly redeveloped. * * * 

 In nearly all the birds, the secondaries were either all old or all new. * * * The 

 median body feathers were shed and grown before the laterals, both dorsal and 

 ventral, as along the spine before the side areas. 



Frank M. Chapman (1921b) discusses the plumages of the bronzed 

 grackle as follows: "The nestling plumage of this species resembles 

 that of the Purple Grackle, and, as in that species, the plumage of 

 the adult is acquired in the fall (post-ju venal) molt. There is, how- 

 ever, a more pronounced difference between the color of the winter 

 and summer plumage in the Bronzed, than in the Purple Grackle, 

 the shining brassy back and abdomen of the fall and winter Bronzed 

 Grackle becoming dull seal bronze in summer." 



"The Bronzed may be known from the Purple and Florida Grackles 

 by the absence of the iridescent bars which, whether exposed or 

 concealed, are present in the back and abdomen of the other two 

 birds." 



The head and upper breast of the adult male bronzed grackle varies 

 from greenish blue to purple, the neck and chest sometimes brassy 

 green; rest of the plumage a uniform bronze or brassy-olive with more 

 purplish on the wings and tail. The lesser and middle wing coverts 

 are not marked with bars or metallic tints. The females are similar 

 to the males but are very much smaller and duller in coloration. 



L. L. Snyder (1937) in a study of 204 trapped grackles found the 

 prismatic colors varied from a red-purple group at one end of the series 

 to a metallic green at the other. Fourteen percent appeared in the 

 first and 24 percent in the latter group; 62 percent were intermediates. 



