"Can we take the grackle successes and apply them to threatened species, see if it helps them survive in human-modified environments?"

Cool writeup and video short on #TheGrackleProject and #ManyIndividuals

https://bsky.app/profile/ucsantabarbara.bsky.social/post/3mknhvx47xg2a

What can a bird that drinks tequila and eats chips and salsa teach us about conservation? #TheGrackleProject and #ManyIndividuals are featured in the press at UCSB!

A huge thank you to Sonia Fernandez and Jessie Ward O'Sullivan for making this happen 🙏

👉 Do you see grackles in your backyard in Santa Barbara, California? If so, please let me know! We are looking for more places to do this research

🎤 Interview: https://news.ucsb.edu/2026/022535/grackle-research-reveals-behavioral-flexibility-and-adaptation-action
🎥 Video: https://youtu.be/imZNHhjGOeY

Grackles are amazing. This is aqua purple standing on top of a tower waiting for me to set up the test so he can do a bunch of trials in his reversal learning task

I trained them to come to the towers and wait for me when they are ready to be tested. Sometimes it takes me 5 minutes to set up the test and they just stand there waiting

What I love is that they tell me when they want to do tests and we both understand what the other wants. These are wild birds who willingly (and eagerly!) participate in behavioral choice tests, even when they get frustrated when the rules change (that is part of the test)

#TheGrackleProject #ManyIndividuals

Fieldwork simplifies bird identification: the bird on the left is "not a grackle", the bird in the middle is "not a grackle", as is the bird on the right #TheGrackleProject

For actual ID's see alt text.

I started Aqua Purple’s behavioral observations a few weeks ago and it has been difficult to follow him for long periods of time.

Why? He is a magician! One second, I see him under a car in the parking lot. The next second, he has vanished 🪄 into thin air. I search 🔍 for several minutes, but usually can’t refind him. Where did he go? 👀

When I am able to keep him in sight, he is quite the buffet bird - he goes back and forth through the parking lots finding food along the way.

When he finds a piece of food, he likes to eat lots of it before moving on.

And he is big on napping 💤 - loves his naps under cars 🚗 or in a palm 🌴
#TheGrackleProject #ManyIndividuals

9 months after I last saw him, great-tailed grackle, Aqua Aqua remembered me! When I returned a couple of weeks ago and he first saw me, he came close, stared at me, and was probably waiting for something interesting to happen (like a test or something).

❓ Grackle #memory is something we have wondered about on #TheGrackleProject. Do the individuals we work with remember us? If so, for how long?

We know that grackles can recognize individual humans because when we used to do tests in aviaries with them, sometimes a grackle would only work with one of us (or sometimes only one gender, which can be tricky on a team with mostly women!).

But after we released them to the wild, they didn’t treat us differently from other humans. It wasn’t clear whether they just didn’t care, or didn’t recognize us. I think Aqua Aqua has answered this question! ✅

#ManyIndividuals