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.
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.
Most of our birds go to the southern USA to winter but a few may be found at feeders in southern Ontario.
This is a long-tailed bird about the size of a Common Grackle, somewhat larger than an American Robin.
It is a rich rufous brown above and with white underparts with bold streaking.
The song is delivered in couplets: “yes-yes-siree-siree, sirah, sirah oh-oh etc”. The call note is an emphatic, smacking “tak”.
Dr J. Murray Speirs