The Brown Thrasher, Toxostoma rufum, can be found throughout eastern Canada and United States east of the Rockies.
The bird is easy to hear but hard to see. It has a beautiful song.
Classification:
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Mimidae
Genus: Toxostoma
Species: T. rufum
Photos:
Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum)
"just hanging out in a thicket developing in the back yard. Brown Thrasher is a member of the Mimidae (mimic thrushes) along with Northern Mockingbird, Gray Catbird and its many Western thrasher cousins. its proper name, Toxostoma rufum, translates as "reddish bow-mouth" for the rusty plumage coloration and the slightly de-curved bill (this bird appears to be a juvenile.) among North American songbirds, Brown Thrasher holds the distinction of having the largest known vocabulary, with as many as 1,500 phrases/song types. the name "thrasher" does not derive from its habit of tossing thru leaf litter, mulch, etc. but is from a Latin term for "thrush." regarding their intelligence, i have a habit of throwing a handful of peanuts out a cpl times a day. when the thrashers are nearby, they hear the peanuts hitting the ground, scoot over and wait for me to stop tossing. occasionally when i’m being a slacker, they remind me they’d like a peanut, and wait for me to toss some out. they’ve trained me pretty well. there aren’t any dumb animals living in the wild; the dumb ones don’t last for very long. amazingly, lots of dumb humans live exceptionally long lives… ;)"
Photo courtesy of Carolinensis
Brown Thrasher
"There is a bush in the park where I always see Brown Thrashers. Walked past the bush today and they started hollering. They have never done that before. I turned around to see what was wrong and their baby was following me! I shooed it back, took some pics and started to leave. It kept following. They kept hollering. LOL Took awhile but I finally got the baby turned around and back to it’s bush. Mom and dad were happy."
Photo courtesy of Carla Finley
