Thrashers
Backyard Habitat: Attracting Wildlife to Your Garden ... Bird Feeding Stations ... Nesting Habits of Wild Birds and Build-Your-Own Nesting Boxes ... Wild Bird Houses / Nests (Fancy & Practical) .... Water Fountains ... Bird Baths ...... Books, Videos, CDs & DVDs
Thrashers are a New World group of passerine birds related to mockingbirds and New World catbirds. Like these, they are in the Mimidae family. There are 15 species in one large and 4 monotypic genera.
These do not form a clade but are a phenetic assemblage. It is rather likely than not — though by no means robustly supported — that the Sage Thrasher is a basal lineage among a group also consisting of mockingbirds and Toxostoma thrashers. The Caribbean thrashers occupy varying positions in an assemblage consisting of them, the tremblers, and the New World catbirds. Here, the White-breasted Thrasher appears to be quite basal though it is impossible to place it anywhere with certainty, whereas the Pearly-eyed Thrasher is probably quite close to the tremblers.(Hunt et al. 2001, Barber et al. 2004)
Their common name describes the behaviour of these birds when searching for food on the ground: they use their long bills to "thrash" through dirt or dead leaves. All of these birds eat insects and several species also eat berries.
Taxonomic list
Genus Oreoscoptes
- Sage Thrasher, Oreoscoptes montanus
Genus Toxostoma – typical thrashers
- Brown Thrasher, Toxostoma rufum
- Long-billed Thrasher, Toxostoma longirostre
- Cozumel Thrasher, Toxostoma guttatum – possibly extinct (2006?)
- Gray Thrasher, Toxostoma cinereum
- Bendire's Thrasher, Toxostoma bendirei
- Ocellated Thrasher, Toxostoma ocellatum: Endemic to Mexico. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montanes and subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland.
- Curve-billed Thrasher, Toxostoma curvirostre
- California Thrasher, Toxostoma redivivum
- Crissal Thrasher, Toxostoma crissale : The Crissal Thrasher is a large thrasher found in the Southwestern United States to central Mexico. The bird grows to 32 cm (12.5 inches), and has a deeply curved bill. It can be found near desert streams in dense underbrush, and in the low desert near canyon chaparral. The bird seldom flies in the open.
- Le Conte's Thrasher, Toxostoma lecontei
- Vizcaino Thrasher, Toxostoma arenicola
- White-breasted Thrasher, Ramphocinclus brachyurus : The White-breasted Thrasher is a species of bird in the Mimidae family. It is monotypic within the genus Ramphocinclus. It is found in Martinique and Saint Lucia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical dry shrubland. It is threatened by habitat loss.
Genus Allenia – formerly in Margarops
- Scaly-breasted Thrasher, Allenia fusca
: The Scaly-breasted Thrasher is a species of bird in the Mimidae family. It was formerly united with the Pearly-eyed Thrasher in Margarops but now is again placed in the monotypic genus Allenia. It is found in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It may have disappeared from Barbados, Barbuda and Sint Eustatius. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, and heavily degraded former forest.
- Barbados Scaly-breasted Thrasher, Allenia fusca atlantica – extinct (c. 1990)
Genus Margarops
- Pearly-eyed Thrasher, Margarops fuscatus
References
- Barber, Brian R.; Martínez-Gómez, Juan E. & Peterson, A. Townsend (2004): Systematic position of the Socorro mockingbird Mimodes graysoni. J. Avian Biol. 35: 195-198. doi:10.1111/j.0908-8857.2004.03233.x (HTML abstract)
- Hunt, Jeffrey S.; Bermingham, Eldredge; & Ricklefs, Robert E. (2001): Molecular systematics and biogeography of Antillean thrashers, tremblers, and mockingbirds (Aves: Mimidae). Auk 118(1): 35–55. DOI:10.1642/0004-8038(2001)118[0035:MSABOA]2.0.CO;2 HTML fulltext without images
Copyright: Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia.org
Relevant Web Resources: Mimidae Thrashers & Mimids ...Thrashers, Waxwings, Starlings: Eggs, Incubation and Fledging Times
- Crissal Thrashers: Crissal Thrasher (Nest with Eggs, Sound & Info) ... Crissal Thrasher - Toxostoma Crissale (USGS - Photo, ID tips, Maps & Info)
If you would like to add to or correct any of the above information, or would like to share with the AvianWeb visitors your own experiences, please e-mail the AvianWeb Webmaster.
Photo contributions and articles are welcome!
