achalalactli.

ĀCA-TZANA-TL, literally “reed grackle,” Slender-billed Grackle (Quiscalus palustris) [FC: 50 Acatzanatl/Acatzunatl] “Some are quite black, some only smoky. They dwell among the reeds; among the reeds they hatch. They prey especially upon maize, and worms, and the small insects which fly.” Martin del Campo fails to distinguish this from Tzanatl, the Slender-billed Grackle. It is possible this is a synonym for that species, as distinct from the larger, introduced Great-tailed Grackle, known as Teotzanatl. Both species of grackle are at home in the reed beds. However, it might also be a synonym for COYOL-TŌTŌ-TL, Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds.
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 11 – Earthly Things, no. 14, Part XII, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1963); Rafael Martín del Campo, “Ensayo de interpretación del Libro Undecimo de la Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España de Fray Bernardino de Sahagún – 11 Las Aves (1),” Anales del Instituto de Biología Tomo XI, Núm. 1 (México, D.F., 1940); and, with quotation selections, synthesis, and analysis here also appearing in E. S. Hunn, "The Aztec Fascination with Birds: Deciphering Sixteenth-Century Sources," unpublished manuscript, 2022, cited here with permission.

The Florentine Codex includes a painting of this bird in Book 11, folio 39v.
Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 11: Earthly Things", fol. 39v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/39v/images/0 Accessed 17 October 2025.