Bird of the Week 5/18 - 5/22

This week’s bird is the: Brown Thrasher

1. A member of the mimic family (Mimidae), the Brown Thrasher can imitate the songs of other birds.

2. Despite this cool ability, they mostly stick to their own sounds. Their own sounds are highly varied though, with one study putting the number of unique ones at over 1000!

3. The Brown Thrasher is an eastern bird, with some birds moving up from southern states to the Midwest and Northeast during the summer.

4. Brown Thrashers are a very common host for the Brown-headed Cowbird, a brood parasite. They will most often raise these birds, but sometimes recognize the shifty eggs and boot them out of their nests.

5. Brown Thrashers like semi-open areas, rather than fully closed forests. Despite being historically common in the Northeast, their numbers seem to be declining there due to reforestation.

Have a great week!