Brown thrashers: Feisty, messy eaters and beautiful singers

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “thrash” means to “stir or toss about violently.” That is certainly what one visitor did with the birdseed in our feeder at a rather alarming rate one recent fall day. The contents were raining down all over the ground below and one could almost hear the squirrels laughing with delight at their latest windfall. 

 

November’s visit by a brown thrasher, Toxostoma Rufum, was the first we have witnessed to our feeder. It would be just fine if his next visit is to someone else’s home!

 

Thrashers are more often found in densely wooded areas or thickets than at bird feeders, but they are opportunistic eaters. They most commonly eat on the ground, where they toss leaves and grass aside looking for insects, worms, grubs, grasshoppers, lizards and small snakes. They can even catch flying insects. That’s an extensive menu for a bird only about the size of a robin. They will also readily eat berries, fruits and seeds.  

 

The word “pretty” may not come to mind, but the bird has a bold coloration and a striking, almost stern, appearance. The piercing eyes and long, slightly curved beak seem appropriate for a species known to occasionally draw blood from other birds, dogs and even humans that get too close to its nest.

 

The thrasher is the state bird of neighboring Georgia, where it took some 35 years to be officially recognized as such. Apparently there was, from Governor Talmedge’s 1935 thrasher proposal until its legislative adoption in 1970, ongoing disagreement about whether the redheaded woodpecker, bobwhite quail or brown thrasher was the most appropriate choice to be the state bird.  

 

It may seem an unlikely choice to select a bird that mostly hides in bushes and thickets, lacks the bright colors of many “competitors” and is known to have a rather feisty demeanor, but this bird can really sing! It copies the songs of other birds like a mockingbird does, and according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (allaboutbirds.org) it can imitate up to 1,100 songs. Some naturalists find the notes to be even richer and fuller than those of the mockingbird.

 

Brown thrashers inhabit most of eastern North America. Many live in the southern half of that range year-round, but some migrate as far north as southern Canada during breeding season.  

 

Although they have only a 10 (out of 20) Continental Concern Score, their population is thought to have decreased by about one percent per year over the last 35 years. Loss of habitat seems to be the main cause.  

 

Mating and nesting behavior is harder to observe than that of many other birds due to the thick vegetation thrashers tend to inhabit, but it is known that both sexes help build the nest and defend it aggressively. A pair may have one or two broods per year with each brood consisting of two to six eggs. 

 

The oldest known wild brown thrasher was at least 10 years and 11 months old. It was banded in Florida in 1967 and found there in 1978.