
I watched a grackle courtship ritual the other day! :D Picture it: The lovely girl grackle was standing there by the sidewalk, calmly pecking away at things, when in swoops this sleek-and-shiny boy grackle out of a tree, landing just a foot or so away from her. He tilts his head back, stretches out his wings and fluffs out his feathers as showily as possible, screeching loud for all to hear.
Have you ever seen someone you knew across the street, looked them dead in the eye, and waved to them, only to find out a few seconds later that they weren't who you thought they were? And they probably didn't even know you at all? So you have to try and cover yourself, and pretend you were just scratching your neck, or fixing your hair, or something.
That's what happened to this bird. She completely ignored him. So he's standing there, trying to look like he had some other *completely legitimate* reason to be fluffing and yelling and stuff. He hops around once or twice, making sure anyone who's looking sees that the act was NOT just directed at her, but at OTHER THINGS too and for perfectly good reasons of his own, gradually toning down his screeching and flattening his feathers again. He then starts pecking quietly beside her as if nothing had happened. Bottom line: Funniest thing all week.