Long-billed Thrasher

Toxostoma longirostreOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Mockingbirds and Thrashers (Mimidae)

General

Long-billed Thrasher: Medium-sized, secretive thrasher with gray-washed brown upperparts and heavily streaked, pale underparts. Eyes are orange. Bill is long, black, and decurved. Wings have two white bars. Tail is long and rufous. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Long-billed Thrasher: Resident in south-central Texas and northeastern Mexico. Found in dense tangles and thickets in both open country and wooded areas.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"tsuck", "kleak", "cheeooep"

Interesting Facts

The Long-billed Thrasher has a long and complicated song like other thrashers and mockingbirds, but it is not known to include mimicry in its repertoire.

The common name describes their behaviour when searching for food on the ground: they use their long bills to "thrash" through dirt or dead leaves.

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.

Long-billed Thrasher

Long-billed Thrasher: Medium, shy thrasher with gray-washed brown upperparts and heavily streaked, pale underparts. Eyes are orange. Bill is long, black, and decurved. Wings have two white bars. Tail is long and rufous. Legs and feet are brown. Eats insects, small amphibians and fruit.

● Song: "tsuck", "kleak", "cheeooep"

● Foraging & Feeding: Long-billed Thrasher: Eats insects, small amphibians, and fruits; forages on the ground and low in trees and shrubs.

● Breeding & nesting: Long-billed Thrasher: Two to five blue green to pale green eggs speckled with red brown are laid in a cup nest made of prickly sticks, lined with straw and grass, and built 4 to10 feet above the ground in a shrub or small tree. Incubation ranges from 13 to 14 days and is carried out by both parents.

● Similar species: Long-billed Thrasher: Brown Thrasher has a shorter and less down-curved bill and browner upperparts.

Flight Pattern

Swift flight on rapidly beating wings alternating with brief periods of wings pulled to sides.

Long-billed Thrasher Breeding Male Body Illustration

● Range & Habitat: Long-billed Thrasher: Resident in south-central Texas and northeastern Mexico. Found in dense tangles and thickets in both open country and wooded areas.

^BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester

^PopulationDeclining

^MigrationNonmigratory

^Weight2.4 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America