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Search Issues: Update 2026-09-16 - Repairs to some of our search pages are ongoing. Thank you for your continued patience!
Meanwhile, elements of the Advanced Search are working and the Alphabetical Listings are working, too.
Great-tailed Grackle, literally a "sacred grackle" (see Hunn, attestations)
TEŌ-TZANA-TL/TEU-TZANA-TL, literally, “sacred grackle,” Great-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus) [FC: 50 Teutzanatl] “It has a long, nail-like bill; it has a streaked tail…. It has a good voice; it speaks well, it speaks pleasantly {!!?!}. The one which is not very black, but a little sooty, is the hen; the very black one, very curved of bill, glistening, is the cockerel and is called teotzanatl. It is named teotzanatl because It did not live here in Mexico in times of old….” There follows an account of its introduction from the Veracruz coast and subsequent protection by the Emperor Ahuitzotl. This is the Great-tailed Grackle, recently split from the Boat-tailed Grackle (now Quiscalus major) of Martin del Campo’s identification).