What Do Grackles Eat? (All You Need To Know)

Grackles are a member of the blackbird family and are common in the eastern and midwestern United States. You can recognize these loud, gregarious birds by their beautiful iridescent plumage. They are opportunists, so they are perfect for living around humans. So, what do freckles eat?

Ordinary grackles are not picky eaters. They mainly eat seeds, including sunflower seeds, acorns, and sweetgum. However, they also enjoy the fruits of wild and cultivated shrubs, grains such as wheat and corn, and occasionally eat trash.

More than 25 percent of grouper diets include insects, amphibians, fish, mammals and other birds. Everything seems to be on the menu for these crafty birds.

Read on to learn more about their diets and other fun habits!

Common grouper eating cherry tree fruit

What is Grackles’ favorite food?

In general, the favorite food of freckled finches is insects. These birds are natural ground foragers. They often swagger across yards and fields, feeding on insects, including beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers, and grubs—many of which are harmful to your crops or garden.

Freckles are omnivores. They also typically eat various seeds, grains, berries, and small animals — such as mice and other birds.

How do grackles find food and hunt?

The common grackle hunts and finds food primarily by foraging on the ground. It uses its long beak instead of feet to find food in grass. These birds also search for food on the ground. You’ll find flocks or individuals foraging in trees and bushes or visiting bird feeders.

Grackles feed mainly on the ground

What time of day do grackles eat?

Grackles will often eat most of the day. They are opportunistic feeders, utilizing any food source they can find.

Outside of nesting season, grackles often forage in groups for safety. They will stop in fields, orchards, and even your backyard to find food including seeds, grubs, and small mammals. They might even rummage through your trash cans for tasty treats.

What do freckles in the grass eat?

When foraging in grass, they usually pick up seeds and fallen fruit, or eat various insects.

Many bird lovers have mixed feelings about freckled parrots, as they sometimes bully or eat other birds. They may also rummage through your garden for fruits and vegetables. However, these birds aren’t exactly a nuisance.

More often than not, grackles are eating bugs and insects that can be harmful to your garden. Japanese beetles, caterpillars, and grasshoppers are among the pests these birds often remove, which can benefit you and your plants.

peck with beak full of insects

What kind of grass do you eat in winter?

During the winter, grackles typically eat leftover seeds and grains in croplands and meadows. Acorns and fruit are also common foods in cold weather. With fewer insects and other food sources, grackles may also visit your bird feeder more frequently.

What do turtles eat?

Baby grackles eat mostly insects. While the chicks remain in the nest, both parents are involved in feeding the chicks. The nesting period usually lasts 10 to 17 days after hatching.

Gracle feeding the chicks

What can I feed grackle?

To feed grackles, set up bird feeders in your yard with their favorite seeds, or sprinkle bird food on the ground. Advantageous mixtures include sunflower seeds, corn, millet and wheat. If you have oak trees, falling acorns will also attract grackles.

Since grackles are ground foragers, spreading bird food around your yard will be more to their liking. Doing so also encourages birds to eat insects and bugs that may be unwelcome. This may also prevent them from bullying other birds from the feeder.

What do freckles not eat?

There is almost nothing a grackle won’t eat. In a way, they are nature’s garbage disposers. However, if you’re trying to keep grackles from getting into your feeders, there are a few possible solutions. Both involve delivering seeds that grackles dislike but other songbirds do.

Freckles seem to be put off by safflower seeds, a favorite of nuthatches, cardinals and chickadees. They also don’t like nyjer and thistle seeds, often preferred by finches.

Grackle eating a spider on the ground

What do freckles drink?

Freckles drink water. For a long time, however, little was known about how grackles drank. They have never been observed drinking water like most birds do. However, many have witnessed them leaching food into shallow ponds and other water sources.

Therefore, it is thought that the birds get enough water through the food they eat. Until finally, grackles were observed drinking from their beaks like other birds.

Extracting drinking water from a bird bath

Are grackles being fed from a bird feeder?

Grackles will feed from the bird feeder – sometimes they are welcome guests, other times they are quite unwelcome. During the spring and fall migration season, they often migrate in flocks and will pounce on feeders when they come across them.

These birds are large and can eat the feeder clean very quickly. They may even bully smaller songbirds, preventing them from coming to your feeders. But if you’ve ever had freckles during your migration—or wandering around in winter causing a commotion—you might be able to remedy it.

Try giving your feeders the aforementioned seeds that grackles don’t like. If that doesn’t work, spread plenty of bird food on the ground, away from the feeder. Doing so may encourage grackles to forage on the ground, leaving other birds alone.

Eating Seeds From a Backyard Bird Feeder

Are grackles good birds?

Grackles can be great birds to be around. They can also be annoying. When migrating in large groups, they can be a nuisance pest to gardeners and farmers because they eat crops and livestock feed.

The grackle will also bully and even kill other birds, making them unwanted guests at many backyard feeders. However, they are not inherently bad apples. As mentioned earlier, these birds also eat many insects that can be harmful to your crops and garden.

If you like bird watching, you can also observe the interesting behavior of these characters. It’s really up to you whether you’re comfortable with grackles.

Closeup of a bird at a bird feeder, feeding on mixed seeds

Gracle Diet FAQs

Do freckles eat other birds?

Freckles will occasionally eat other birds. They also eat eggs and chicks. Because of this behavior, freckles are often painted on in poor light, but this is natural.

Do freckles eat sparrows?

Freckles have been reported to kill and eat sparrows. They will also attack other songbirds up to the size of a thrush.

Do Grackles eat peanuts?

Grackles do eat peanuts, including the shells and hearts.

Do freckles eat sunflower seeds?

Freckles eat sunflower seeds. Along with corn, acorns, and wheat, these are among the birds’ favorite foods.