Brown Thrasher: Dr J. Murray Speirs

Like the other mimids, the Brown Thrasher is a bird with a strong personality, shouting its couplets from the tree tops in spring, or slipping surreptitiously into your feeder when least expected in winter.

Brown Thrasher

Our Illinois friends, the Satterthwaites, delighted in banding them and found that the eye colour changed from pale straw yellow to a fiery reddish orange as the birds matured.

Brown Thrasher

Most of our birds go to the southern USA to winter but a few may be found at feeders in southern Ontario.

Brown Thrasher

This is a long-tailed bird about the size of a Common Grackle, somewhat larger than an American Robin.

Brown Thrasher

It is a rich rufous brown above and with white underparts with bold streaking.

Brown Thrasher

The song is delivered in couplets: “yes-yes-siree-siree, sirah, sirah oh-oh etc”. The call note is an emphatic, smacking “tak”.

Brown Thrasher

Dr J. Murray Speirs

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