Educate Yourself About the Brown Thrasher and Their Habitat
Brown Thrasher
The Brown Thrasher has a relatively long, rather curved bill, gleaming golden eye, slimmer body than the thrushes, rich cinnamon color on top, heavily striped below, white wing bars, and a long pale red tail that widens at the tip. Its length is 11in (28cm) Its wingspan is 13in (33cm) Its voice is a song that resembles that of the catbird, but more musical in nature with phrases in pairs. The note is a harsh “chack”. Their eggs are pale blue with many small brownish-red dots, with usually 2 clutches consisting of 4-5 or (2-5) eggs. They both incubate for about 11-14 days, and fledging time is about 9-13 days.
Both male and female feed their young.Males and females look alike.
The Brown Thrasher is a relative of the mockingbird, and is capable of mimicking the songs of other birds close by, but they chose to compose their own songs more often. They resemble thrushes, but for the long body shape, and long legs, that of the catbird and mockingbird. These fabulous musical birds can be found over the eastern two-thirds of the country, but thrashers that nest in the northern states will usually migrate to the southeast for the winter.
Among all the North American birds, the male Brown Thrasher holds the title of most original variety and extent of their song repertoire, consisting of over a thousand different ones. They usually believe in singing their phrases not just once, but at least twice, like a “shuck it-shuck it, plow it-plow-it”, and so on.
The Brown Thrasher lives in dry shrubby, bushy tickets, at wood’s edges, or can be found in backyards with lots of shrubbery. Look for them under shrubs and trees as it “thrashes” about with its long down-curved bill among leaves on the ground searching for food, like beetles, a third of their animal diet. They also feed on cherries and blackberries during the summer time, but will switch to acorns, sumac, bayberry, and holly in the winter time.
In the summer time they will establish territories witch they will return to year after year, and will build their bulky stick nests in a shrub or a tree, 1-10ft (30-3m) off the ground. Sometimes their nest can be located on the ground, but not such a great idea for protection purposes.
If you like to attract the Brown Thrasher to your lovely bird feeding garden, plant a hedgerow of highbush blueberry, choke cherries, blackberries, hollies, and hawthorn. Toss mixed seeds, and millet on the ground, and to create feeding areas, rake leaves under trees and shrubs, and let it decompose.
