Brown Thrasher

Toxostoma rufum

Knows over 1,100 song types — more than any other North American bird. Repeats each phrase twice, just to be sure.

Population: ~6.2 million mature individuals (Partners in Flight/BirdLife estimate); population trend slightly decreasing but not at a rate threatening its status; overall described as abundant/common.
Habitat: Woodland edges, hedgerows, overgrown fields, and dense shrubland/thickets/thorn scrub; also suburban neighborhoods with heavy shrub cover. Forages mostly on or near the ground in leaf litter and low, dense cover.
Fun fact: The Brown Thrasher has the largest documented song repertoire of any North American bird, with over 1,000 distinct song types, many mimicked from other species; it is also the state bird of Georgia.
Range: Eastern and central North America, east of the Rocky Mountains — breeds from southern Canada (Alberta to Nova Scotia) south through the central and eastern United States; winters mainly in the southeastern US, with year-round residents in parts of that range; vagrants recorded occasionally west of the typical range and in the Caribbean/Western Europe.
Diet: Omnivorous: forages on the ground in leaf litter for insects (especially beetles and grasshoppers), other invertebrates (earthworms, snails), and occasionally small vertebrates (frogs, lizards, small snakes); also eats berries, nuts, and seeds — roughly 63% animal matter to 37% plant material across the year.
Size: 0.27 m
Wingspan: 0.305 m
Lifespan: 12 years

More Songbirds