[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Oooohhh...close.
I've been a birder since waayyy back when. What you have pictured there is definitely a Blackbird (note the orange/yellow beak and legs) and a Red Winged Blackbird (not a Red Wing Starling which is a completely different bird)....normally a marsh in habitant.

Below is a Starling...sometimes referred to as a Grackle or a Brewer's Blackbird. Note the black beak, black legs and the more iridescent plummage and a longer tail on a narrower body.

But, everyone has their own opinions and references on this subject. I've seen threads go on for many days on FR on what is a Blackbird and what's a Starling.

[Jack Hydrazine]

I'm glad that it wasn't this Blackbird.

[HighWheeler]

This Photo seals it: they are RedwingBlackbirds, see the two just behind this Ghostbuster:

[savedbygrace]

If a few hundred or thousands of these Grackles (Starlings) decide to nest in the trees of your neighborhood, the ground will be covered in bird poop, and they will continue to nest there for years to come.

The only way to get them to nest elsewhere is for you and all your neighbors to conduct a campaign of noise every evening for several days. Banging pots/pans, snapping big belts, banging tools together, etc.

It will scare the birds from nesting there, and the next year, they will nest in another location, far from your neighborhood.

We did this about 10 years ago, and the birds have only started to return in the past year. It’s almost time for another noise campaign.

[RckyRaCoCo]

What is the first bird pictured in post #18? We gets lots of those around these parts.

[crazyhorse691]

Interesting observation I have made about a population of Brewer Blackbirds at one specific location(a strip mall in northern Clackamas County, Oregon)is that there is a high incidence of right foot deformity in the juvenile...approaching 90% in summer and not observed during late winter. Well, it's an interesting observation if you are waiting for your wife while she is shopping.

[RegulatorCountry]

Well, there’s a difference between a Starling and a Grackle, they’re not interchangeable, as far as my own observation.

Starlings could be either beautiful or disgusting, depending upon your perspective. Iridescent plumage looks oily when you know their behavior and they’ve roosted in trees near your house. They’re loud and messy, and hard to get rid of once they’ve settled in your trees.

Grackles are somewhat similar in size and behavior, and are actually louder than Starlings. I’ve always thought the name “Grackle” was onomotopoeiac since it sounds like the racket they raise.

But, they’re not iridescent or oily looking, they have small white speckles on their backs and wings.

I’m not exactly a “birder” from way back, so it could be that I’m mistaken, but I learned my birds from my extended family, several of whom were country farmers. They knew their pest birds.

Redwing Blackbirds, on the other hand, were beloved up to a point, so long as their population didn’t get out of hand. My grandfather had one that had learned a couple of sounds, it wasn’t exactly a pet as it was still in the wild, but it was nearly tame, came to “visit” him when he was outside. They can become mimics like a magpie with longterm close association with people.