Brown Thrasher

Overview

Brown Thrasher: Medium thrasher, rufous upperparts, black-streaked, pale brown underparts. Eyes are yellow. Brown-black bill curves down, lower mandible has pale base. Wings have two white and black bars. Tail is long and red-brown. Legs and feet are brown. Fast flight on shallow, rapid wing beats.

Range and Habitat

Brown Thrasher: Breeds from southeastern Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and northern New England south to the Gulf coast and Florida. Spends winters in southern part of breeding range.

INTERESTING FACTS

Brown Thrashers have the largest repertoire of songs of all the North American birds and are able to vocalize 3000 distinct songs.
Populations are declining slowly throughout their range, perhaps because of the maturation of shrublands in the East and the elimination of fencerows and shelter belts in the Great Plains.
They are an aggressive defender of their nest, and have been known to strike people and dogs hard enough to draw blood.
They are the official state bird of Georgia, and the inspiration for the name of Atlanta's National Hockey League team, the Atlanta Thrashers.

The Brown Thrasher has a large range, estimated globally at 5,700,000 square kilometers. It is native to the Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba, Netherlands Antilles, Turks and Caicos, and the nations of North America, but has been seen in Aruba, Germany, United Kingdom, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon. The bird lives in temperate forest and shrubland areas and has an estimated global population of 7,300,000 individuals. The population of the bird does not seem to be declining at a rate that necessitates inclusion on the IUCN Red List. Because of this population status, the evaluation status of the Brown Thrasher is Least Concern.