A little-loved bird

Great-tailed grackle. Teresa Shumaker photo. 

Great-tailed grackle. Teresa Shumaker photo. 

When I was first moving away from Texas, I knew I would miss the mockingbird's song. (Yes I now know mockingbirds are elsewhere, but they are very common where I grew up.)
But when I returned to Texas last year, it was the great-tailed grackles that I realized I had missed too. These birds are everywhere in South Texas and most people dismiss them as one would any overly abundant animal.
But I get quite a bit of amusement watching these fussy birds work out their tiffs and sing their litany of songs.
These birds are rarely quiet, but boy do they have a range of sounds they can make. From typical bird chatter, squawks and squeaks to strange metallic and electronic buzzes and screeches. I cannot count the amount of times I have heard a strange sound, stopped to look for the source and realized it was a grackle.

The Cornell Lab has some recording of grackle sounds, but it doesn't have much in the way of their mechanical noises. Go here to check it out: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great-tailed_Grackle/sounds