If their reviews on Yelp are any indication (3 stars), Austin residents are evenly divided between hating and loving our local trash birds, the grackles. Maligned for pilfering from the plates of unsuspecting restaurant patrons and for their raucous, awe-inspiring gatherings in grocery store parking lots, grackles also maintain a large fan base for their comedic displays of bravado, their iridescent plumage and the males’ amorous attempts to attract mates.

If you fall into the latter category of maintaining a fondness for grackles, you’re not alone. These birds have a lurid history entwined with humans that goes back at least as far as the ancient Aztecs, who loved them so much, they helped them take over their capital.

The story is recounted in a 16th century book written by a Franciscan Monk and several native scholars on the history and culture of the Aztecs and surrounding indigenous peoples. The book, which itself has a fascinating history, was later banned during the Spanish Inquisition, smuggled out of Mexico and eventually acquired by an Italian duke and deposited safely in Florence, Italy, where it still resides today.

Buried in the 2,400 pages of text and rich illustrations by indigenous artists are a few short paragraphs on grackles. It seems Aztec ruler Ahuitzotl became enamored by the gregarious black birds and demanded they be imported into the capital from an area along the coast (the current state of Veracruz).

“For a while, the ones that came here were the center of attention; they used to be fed. And then they multiplied, they spread out, they ended up everywhere, they foraged everywhere,” according to the book.

Sound familiar? And while the grackles had Ahuitzotl’s official blessing and were considered sacred — they were called “teotzanatl,” or “divine grackle” — not everyone shared the same enthusiasm, as evidenced by those who threw rocks at the birds.

“And when they were still esteemed, no one might throw stones at them. People used to rebuke one another. If anyone stoned them, the common folk said to one another, ‘What are you doing? Oh, do not shout at the lord’s bird! Do not stone it!’” the book says.

There’s some debate about whether Ahuitzotl actually commanded they be brought to the capitol, or if they were simply brought in when the Aztecs conquered modern day Veracruz. Either way, after the fall of the Aztecs, the grackles seem to have left the denuded city. The Native American population in the Basin of Mexico dwindled from 1.5 million in 1519 to just 70,000 by 1650 as they languished and died from European diseases.

The vast fields of corn that had sustained the large human population receded and were eventually replaced by the wheat and livestock preferred by the Spanish. But those crops didn’t make good foraging for the birds. The great-tailed grackle reportedly wasn’t seen again in Tenochtitlan until 1957, long after it had become Mexico City.

Meanwhile, grackles had been extending most of their efforts traveling north. By 1865, they had invaded Texas, just south and to the west of the Nueces River.

By then, the Industrial Revolution was in full swing, and in countries throughout the burgeoning American continents, cities began cropping up — the preferred habitat of the great-tailed grackle. The stage had been set for what was to become an astounding comeback.

Texas was the first to fall to the great grackle invasion. By 1890, they had established themselves in San Antonio, and by 1902 had begun breeding in Austin. (Eggs collected in surrounding counties indicate they’d been in the area almost two decades before that.) Traveling along the Gulf Coast, they spread out east and west, arriving first in Arizona and New Mexico, with separate populations reaching California and Louisiana almost simultaneously in the 1960s.

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Fast forward to the present, and grackles now live in 15 states, with vagrant populations in several others, including all the northern states west of Michigan. They’re even becoming a common occurrence in parts of Canada, with more than 150 reported observations so far. And while grackles historically tended to migrate south for the winter, they’re becoming more of a permanent feature in the areas they’ve colonized.

“It seems as though they’ve gotten less migratory over time,” said Walter Wehtje, director of the Ricketts Conservation Center in Fort Collins, Colo. “In Winnemucca, Nev., there are birds year round, and I’ve seen them overwintering along I-80 in Nebraska.”

And for those who find the birds to be a nuisance, researchers say we have only ourselves to blame.

“It seems like this species was able to move from Central America into North America using urban and agricultural corridors, as these landscapes increased and potentially became more connected,” said Corina Logan, a researcher who studies grackles at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

Nor does it look like the grackles will slow down anytime soon. According to Wehtje, it’s likely that they’ll continue on their trek north, establishing themselves in cities and agricultural fields far up into western Canada.

For better or worse, it looks like the grackle is here to stay.