Grackles were once uncommon to Lubbock. Photo by The Hub@TTU staff.
By Urvi Dalal and Reece Nations
When passing certain areas on Texas Tech’s campus, one can expect to see and hear the birds that inhabit its trees.
What might come as a surprise to some and a modest hazard to others is that these birds will sometimes swoop towards pedestrians who venture too close to where they roost, something landscape ecology professor Nancy McIntyre said is a fairly common occurrence. The birds will chirp, swoop, and swipe if one moves carelessly about their surroundings.
McIntyre, an ornithologist and the curator of birds at the Museum of Texas Tech University located at 3301 4th St., said birds that dive-bomb passersby aren’t acting aggressively at all — they are acting defensively. Birds common to campus that engage in this “active defense” behavior, like the Great-tailed grackle or the Mississippi Kite, almost always vocalize themselves as a warning before the swoop.
“I would point out that, first off, it’s a minority of individuals that are doing that very active defense,” McIntyre said. “Of that minority who do engage in active defense… very, very few of those will actually make contact with you. Even fewer of those that touch you — a great minority — break the skin.”
Take grackles for instance. McIntyre said they pair up with one another in their breeding season, during the summer months, leading them to nest and lay eggs in hospitable trees planted by humans in places like Tech’s campus.
When humans establish their settlements, the planting of trees naturally follows. Swooping is merely a scare tactic the birds resort to when their audible warnings go unheeded, she said.
“If you think about where we plant trees, like on campus for example, we’ll line streets and avenues with them… or they’ll be sort of on the fringes of a parking lot… [grackles] love that,” McIntyre said.
Great-tailed grackles are a species that have benefited from urban and suburban development, she said. This is because there naturally would be few hospitable trees for them in the grasslands of the South Plains.
People plant trees when they create civilization, and McIntyre said those trees have allowed some birds to expand their range and increase in abundance.
In dense urban environments without many trees, grackles don’t thrive, McIntyre said. Human activity alone generally does not bother these birds much — rather, it depends more on how people affect the environment.
She described the appearance of male grackles as “beautiful, glossy blue, purple-black” in color while females are observed to be “brown or cryptically colored,” meaning their feathers blend into their surroundings. However, all grackles start their lives resembling females and molt into their adult colors.
Grackles are known to migrate early in spring and late in fall, while their breeding season falls during the summer months. As days grow shorter, grackles become less active, so joggers and pedestrians usually won’t have to worry about bird swipes until around “May, June, [or] July.”
Hannah Girgente, a master’s student in biological sciences from Nokesville, Virgina, said grackles are territorial by nature. The main reason swipes occur is because humans do not heed the birds’ warning calls, which can happen either because they were not heard or because one doesn’t understand what the calls mean.
“The only time that you might even have a chance… of being ‘attacked’ by grackles [has] got to be in the breeding season,” Girgente said. “The only reason why they might go after anything… is because you are near their nest.”
In fact, Girgente said bird swipes have even happened to her. She’s been swooped before by a grackle after unknowingly passing right under their tree, and she was left completely unharmed after the altercation.
But fears of being swiped should not dampen one’s enthusiasm for the region’s avian residents. Lubbock’s geograpahy make it a spectacular place for birders, or bird watchers.
Birds in North America typically migrate through three main routes called the Atlantic Flyway, the Pacific Flyway, and the Central Flyway. Lubbock resides within the migratory route of the Central Flyway.
This migratory path allows for birds that don’t normally occur here to occasionally pass through, Girgente said. The entire region can be a mixing pot of different birds originating from the west, east or central prairies of the country.
When it comes to swipes, though, grackles are not the only bird feared by Lubbockites. Glenda Kelly, Llano Estacado Audubon Society chapter president, said Mississippi Kites are another “particularly aggressive and territorial” bird species common to the area.
“Sometimes it’s territorial… but mostly it’s just to protect their young,” Kelly said.
Grackles have become more common in Lubbock over the years, Kelly said. Once considered rare sightings, grackles throughout the region were sparse around the 1970s.
As some birds became less common due to Lubbock’s urban expanse, others, like grackles, became more abundant.
“Now they’re here and in a lot of places in big numbers so they are plentiful,” she said.
Community birders during migration season keep watchful eyes open for rare sightings, Kelly said. For them, it’s like their own personal treasure hunt.
Anyone interested in participating in bird walks or an event with the Audubon society can find them advertised online. Although they commonly do outings with elementary-aged students or boy and girl scout troops, Kelly said the Audubon society welcomes members of all ages.
“The population here is great to sustain a chapter,” she said. “Of course, with the university we have wonderfully educated, informed and super intelligent people… it brings a broad range of people to our group.”
McIntyre has led some of the group’s “bird walks” before, often near Ransom Canyon and Buffalo Springs Lake, among other areas. The events are open to the public and not just for Audubon society members.
Some of the more uncommon bird sightings around town have included Sandhill cranes, American white pelicans and a Buff-breasted sandpiper. Kelly notes that the Buff-breasted sandpiper she saw is a “long-range migrant species [that] breeds in the High Arctic” — a remote section of tundra in Canada’s northern Arctic Archipelago.
These and others are just a few examples of the many interesting birds that pass through Lubbock. Kelly said one should not be afraid of running into their feathery neighbors.
“My main takeaway would be to just encourage anyone who has a fear to just learn a little bit more… do a little research about birds,” Kelly said. “Learning and educating yourself about things and just getting out in nature could really be a helpful tool to just get past some fear.”
To learn more about the region’s birds, visit the Llano Estacado Audubon Society.
About Reece Nations
