California Thrasher

Toxostoma redivivumOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Mockingbirds and Thrashers (Mimidae)

General

California Thrasher: Large, slender thrasher with dark brown upperparts and paler gray-brown underparts. Face is finely streaked, eyes are dark, and bill is very long and down curved. Throat has small buff patch. Tail is long with reddish-brown undertail coverts. Sexes are similar. Juvenile has buff edges on wing feathers.

Range and Habitat

California Thrasher: Resident in California west of Sierra Nevada. Preferred habitats include chaparral, foothills, and dense shrubs in parks or gardens.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"chuck", "chur-erp"

Interesting Facts

The California Thrasher is the largest of the thrashers.

First collected by French navigator Jean-François de Galaup, Compte de La Pérouse in 1786, it was also found on Alejandro Malaspina’s 1791 voyage to the Pacific Coast. In 1842 William Gambel collected it, and his “rediscovery” of the California Thrasher is reflected in its species name, redivivum, meaning “resurrected."

It has been observed standing on nests of carpenter ants and allowing them to run over its body and through feathers, a behavior known as anting.

It has been reported to mimic the songs of such birds as the Northern Flicker, House Finch, Bullocks Oriole, American Robin, and Red-tailed Hawk.

Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

California Thrasher

California Thrasher: Large, slender thrasher with dark brown upperparts and paler gray-brown underparts. Face is finely streaked, eyes are dark, and black bill is very long and down curved. Throat has small buff patch. Tail is long with reddish-brown undertail coverts. Legs and feet are gray-brown.

● Song: "chuck", "chur-erp"

● Foraging & Feeding: California Thrasher: Diet consists of insects, spiders, seeds of berries, hazelnuts, weeds, and small fruits; forages by digging in soil and turning over leaves with its bill.

● Breeding & nesting: California Thrasher: Two to four pale blue eggs with light brown spots, are laid in a bowl-shaped nest made of sticks and roots, lined with finer materials, and built in a shrub. Eggs are incubated for approximately 14 days by both parents.

● Similar species: California Thrasher: Crissal Thrasher is darker behind eye, paler cheeks and more rust-brown on undertail coverts. Le Conte's Thrasher is paler overall and lacks pale area behind eye and dark cheeks.

Flight Pattern

Long flights on swift, shallow wing beats.

● Range & Habitat: California Thrasher: Resident in California west of Sierra Nevada. Preferred habitats include chaparral, foothills, and dense shrubs in parks or gardens.

^BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester

^PopulationWidespread

^MigrationNonmigratory

^Weight3 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America