Birds Posters
Thrashers
Thrashers are a New World group of passerine birds related to mockingbirds and New World catbirds.
Their common name describes the behaviour of these birds when searching for food on the ground:
they use their long bills to thrash through dirt or dead leaves.
All of these birds eat insects and several species also eat berries.
A bird of the sagebrush, the Sage Thrasher is the smallest of the thrashers.
Curve billed Thrasher is larger, has longer, more curved, all dark bill, is less distinctly streaked on breast, and has orange eyes.
Juvenile Curve billed Thrasher may have yellow eyes and straighter bill.
Bendire's Thrasher is larger, has a larger and more curved bill, is darker below, and has less distinct streaking on chest.
The California Thrasher is native to Mexico as well as the United States.
First collected by French navigator Jean Francois de Galaup, Compte de La Perouse in 1786,
the California Thrasher was also found on Alejandro Malaspina 1791 voyage to the Pacific Coast.
In 1842 William Gambel collected it, and his rediscovery of the California Thrasher is reflected in its species name, redivivum, meaning resurrected.
This bird has been observed standing on nests of carpenter ants and allowing them to run over its body and through feathers, a behavior known as anting.
It has been reported to mimic the songs of such birds as the Northern Flicker, House Finch, Bullocks Oriole, American Robin, and Red tailed Hawk.
The California Thrasher is the largest of the thrashers.
The Le Conte's Thrasher prefers to live in deserts with very little vegetation, where it blends in with the sandy soils.
The palest of all thrashers, it grows to 28 cm.