Quiscalus quiscula versicolor (bronzed grackle) (North Dakota, USA)

Description:

Description: English: Quiscalus quiscula versicolor Vieillot, 1819 - bronzed grackle at Crystal Springs rest stop, North Dakota, USA. (photo by Mary Ellen St. John) The bronzed grackle is a subspecies of the common grackle (= purple grackle). Hybrids between the purple and bronze races have been reported in the Appalachians of eastern America. In strong light, the back reflects a bronze-like color. Classification: Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Aves, Passeriformes, Icteridae Birds are small to large, warm-blooded, egg-laying, feathered, bipedal vertebrates capable of powered flight (although some are secondarily flightless). Many scientists characterize birds as dinosaurs, but this is consequence of the physical structure of evolutionary diagrams. Birds aren’t dinosaurs. They’re birds. The logic & rationale that some use to justify statements such as “birds are dinosaurs” is the same logic & rationale that results in saying “vertebrates are echinoderms”. Well, no one says the latter. No one should say the former, either. However, birds are evolutionarily derived from theropod dinosaurs. Birds first appeared in the Triassic or Jurassic, depending on which avian paleontologist you ask. They inhabit a wide variety of terrestrial and surface marine environments, and exhibit considerable variation in behaviors and diets. Date: 26 August 2008, 15:57:09. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/8289829926/. Author: James St. John.