A Spectacular Singer!

Brown Thrasher

The other day I was sitting peacefully by the creek, absorbing the sights and sounds. Birds twittered in the branches around me while the creek babbled at my feet. A sparrow landed on the muddy bank across the creek from me and began searching for bugs. A woodpecker hammered away on one of the dead trees nearby. All of a sudden I heard some rustling in the leaves behind me. My first thought was squirrel since we have quite a few in the area. I slowly turned around, but could not see any squirrels. The rustling continued, so I scanned the leaf covered ground for the source of the disturbance. Finally, I noticed some movement. There, nicely camouflaged in the brown leaves, was a bird, the Brown Thrasher. With his beak he was tossing leaves left and right as he searched for food.

Brown Thrashers are known to be one of the best and most spectacular singers with the largest collection of songs of all North American birds. They have around 3,000 distinct songs in their repertoire. It is also a shy bird that prefers to stay in dense thickets, so spotting it can sometimes be difficult. They love to feed on insects, berries and nuts; however, they also eat lizards, snails, small snakes, and tree frogs. They will build their nests in low bushes, stumps, vines or on the ground and will aggressively protect their nests by using their bills to hit their predators (that can sometimes include humans and dogs).

Click HERE to hear some of the Thrasher's songs and browse more information about the bird.