Toxostoma rufum
Often found in bushes and shrubs
Brown back with spotted fawn chest
Exuberant singers, with a large repertoire
Size & Shape
Brown Thrashers are fairly large, slender songbirds with long proportions—the legs are long and sturdy, and the bill is long and slightly down curved. The tail is long, too, and often cocked upward in the manner of wrens.
Color Pattern
Brown Thrashers are foxy brown birds with heavy, dark streaking on their whitish underparts. The face is gray-brown and the wings show two black-and-white wingbars. They have bright-yellow eyes.
Behavior
Brown Thrashers skulk in shrubby tangles or forage on the ground below dense cover. They’re most obvious when they sing their loud songs from shrubs and treetops. The song is a complex string of many musical phrases (many copied from other birds’ songs, with each phrase typically sung twice before moving on). They also make a distinctive, harsh tsuck note.
Habitat
Scrubby fields, dense regenerating woods, and forest edges are the primary habitats of Brown Thrashers. They rarely venture far from thick undergrowth into which they can easily retreat.
Sounds
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