Quiscalus

{{Short description|Genus of birds}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| image = GrackleInFlight.jpg

| image_caption = Common grackle (Quiscalus quiscula)

| taxon = Quiscalus

| authority = Vieillot, 1816

| type_species = Gracula quiscula{{cite web |url= https://www.aviansystematics.org/4th-edition-checklist?viewfamilies=199 |title= Icteridae |author= |date= |website= aviansystematics.org |publisher= The Trust for Avian Systematics |access-date= 2023-07-16}}

| type_species_authority = Linnaeus, 1758

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision =

• Quiscalus quiscula
• Quiscalus major
• Quiscalus mexicanus
• Quiscalus nicaraguensis
• Quiscalus niger
• Quiscalus lugubris
• Quiscalus palustris (†)

}}

The avian genus Quiscalus contains seven of the 11 species of grackles, gregarious passerine birds in the icterid family. They are native to North and South America.

The genus was named and described by French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816.{{cite book | last=Vieillot | first=Louis Pierre | author-link=Louis Pierre Vieillot | year=1816 | title=Analyse d'une Nouvelle Ornithologie Élémentaire | publisher=Deterville/self | location=Paris | page=36 | language=fr| url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9745205x/f42.image }} The type species was subsequently designated as the common grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) by English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1840.{{ cite book | last=Gray | first=George Robert | author-link=George Robert Gray | year=1840 | title=A List of the Genera of Birds : with an Indication of the Typical Species of Each Genus | place=London | publisher=R. and J.E. Taylor | page=41 | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13668935 }}{{ cite book | editor-last=Paynter | editor-first=Raymond A. Jr | year=1968 | title=Check-list of Birds of the World | volume=14 | publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=187 | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14481388 }} The genus name comes from the specific name Gracula quiscula coined by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus for the common grackle.{{cite book | last=Linnaeus | first=Carl | author-link=Carl Linnaeus | year=1758 | title= Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis | volume=1 | edition=10th | page=109 | publisher=Laurentii Salvii | place=Holmiae (Stockholm) | language=la | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/727014 }} From where Linnaeus obtained the word is uncertain, but it may come from the Taíno word quisqueya, meaning "mother of all lands", for the island of Hispaniola.{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title=The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn=978-1-4081-2501-4 | pages=328–329 }}

The genus contains six extant species and one extinct species:{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | year=2019 | title=Oropendolas, orioles, blackbirds | website=IOC World Bird List Version 9.2 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/blackbirds/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=4 September 2019 }}

class="wikitable"
Image	Scientific name	Common name	Distribution
120px	Quiscalus major	Boat-tailed grackle	Florida and the coastal Southeastern United States
120px	Quiscalus quiscula	Common grackle	North America
120px	Quiscalus mexicanus	Great-tailed grackle	northwestern Venezuela and western Colombia and Ecuador in the south to Minnesota in the north, to Oregon, Idaho, and California in the west, to Florida in the east, with vagrants occurring as far north as southern Canada
120px |†Quiscalus palustris |Slender-billed grackle |endemic of central Mexico, namely Valley of Mexico and Toluca Valley (extinct around 1910)
120px	Quiscalus nicaraguensis	Nicaraguan grackle	Nicaragua and northernmost Costa Rica
120px	Quiscalus niger	Greater Antillean grackle	the Greater Antilles
120px	Quiscalus lugubris	Carib grackle	Colombia east to Venezuela and northeastern Brazil