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Brown Thrasher

Toxostoma rufumOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Mockingbirds and Thrashers (Mimidae)

Brown Thrasher Portrait
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General

Brown Thrasher: Medium-sized thrasher with rufous upperparts and black-streaked, pale brown underparts. Eyes are yellow and bill curves down. Wings have two white and black bars. Tail is long. Sexes are similar. Juvenile has dark eyes.

Range and Habitat

Brown Thrasher: Breeds from southeastern Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and northern New England south to the Gulf coast and Florida. Spends winters in southern part of breeding range.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"smack", "churr"

Interesting Facts

  • Brown Thrashers have the largest repertoire of songs of all the North American birds and are able to vocalize 3000 distinct songs.
  • They are an aggressive defender of their nest, and have been known to strike people and dogs hard enough to draw blood.
  • Populations are declining slowly throughout their range, perhaps because of the maturation of shrublands in the East and the elimination of fencerows and shelter belts in the Great Plains.
  • They are the official state bird of Georgia, and the inspiration for the name of Atlanta's National Hockey League team, the Atlanta Thrashers.


Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Range Map for Brown Thrasher
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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.
Family
Species Toxostoma rufum
Length11.5 Inches
Wingspan13.25 Inches

Brown Thrasher

Brown Thrasher: Medium thrasher, rufous upperparts, black-streaked, pale brown underparts. Eyes are yellow. Brown-black bill curves down, lower mandible has pale base. Wings have two white and black bars. Tail is long and red-brown. Legs and feet are brown. Fast flight on shallow, rapid wing beats.

● Song: "smack", "churr"

● Foraging & Feeding: Brown Thrasher: Feeds on insects, small amphibians, fruits, and some grain. Runs quickly on the ground when foraging, turning leaves over with bill to find food.

● Breeding & nesting: Brown Thrasher: Two to six white to pale blue eggs, with light brown specks, are laid in a large nest built from sticks, grass, leaves, and rootlets, lined with grass, and built near the ground in a dense, often thorny bush. Incubation ranges from 11 to 14 days and is carried out by both parents.

● Similar species: Brown Thrasher: Long-billed Thrasher has more gray-brown upperparts, darker streaks on dull white underparts, longer, more decurved bill, orange-red eyes, and long gray-brown tail.

Flight Pattern

Rather fast flight n shallow wing beats. Short flights are made with several rapid wing beats alternated with brief periods with wings pulled to sides;repeated.
Brown Thrasher Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Brown Thrasher: Breeds from southeastern Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and northern New England south to the Gulf coast and Florida. Spends winters in southern part of breeding range.
BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester
Population
MigrationMigratory
Weight2.4 Ounces