IDAHO BIRD RECORDS COMMITTEE
RARE BIRD REPORT FORM

SPECIES:

Brown Thrasher

HOW MANY:

One individual

REPORTER:

James Cleaver
1222 Freeman Ln. Apt. 145
Pocatello ID 83201
760-7819

REPORTER EMAIL:

blackfootcleaver@yahoo.com

OTHER OBSERVERS:

Myself, James Cleaver was the one to find the Brown Thrasher. The day it was found no one else saw it, but I did inform a co-worker the second day it was present so that he might see it also and be able to look in a fieldguide to see that it was a Brown Thrasher.

DATE REPORT PREPARED:

6-14-2007

DATE SIGHTING OCCURRED:

6-13-2007, 6-14-2007

LOCALITY OF OBSERVATION:

The bird was seen in Butte County on the INL facility at the Reactor Technology Complex next to building 652.

HABITAT:

The immediate habitat that the bird was frequenting was a grass lawn and it flew into a few different trees including Blue Spruse and others which locations are surrounded by the facility buildings and a desert with Sagebrush and Rabbitbrush etc.

CONDITIONS:

The day I found the bird I observed it multiple times throughout the day from morning to afternoon with a total viewing time of about an hour. The weather that day was mostly sunny with some wind. The temperature was in the 80's. I only was able to view the bird with my eyes. I was able to get within 10 feet of it with no obstructed views. The sun was behind me the entire time which allowed the coloration of the bird to really stand out. The week before this sighting there was some big rain storms that pushed through the area. I only observed it for a few minutes on the second day and did not gather any new insight.

DID YOU TAKE NOTES?:

Yes, later the same day

DID YOU CONSULT FIELD GUIDE OR OTHER REFERENCES?:

Yes, later the same day

WHAT GUIDE(S) OR REFERENCE(S) DID YOU CONSULT?:

I first looked up the bird on various internet sites. When I got home I looked up the bird in two of my fieldguides: Kaufman Birds of North America and Sibley's Guide to Western Birds.

DESCRIPTION:

The bird was bigger and slighty slimmer than the robins that were near by. The bill was darker on top and lighter on the bottom with the top mandible slightly curved down. The bill was not unusually large but fit the bird for it's size. As compared to nearby Robins the bill was a little bigger. The bird had a longish tail. The top of the tail, the back, and top of the head were a red-rufous-brown color, the cheeks were slightly gray, the belly was white, the chest and belly were spotted with brown spots, the eyes were yellow, and it had two distinct white wing bars. The observations of it were mostly while it was on the ground and its posture varied from hunching over, sometimes raising it's tail, never really standing up as straight as a Robin. The head shape I would have to say was round. The way it flew reminded me of a Grackle type flight with the wings and tail. In flight it was seen that the undertail coverts and the wings were white with a slight gray tint to the primaries. Its overall plumage appeared very good and I would say that it was 2 or more years old. The bird never vocallized.


BEHAVIOR:

I saw the bird fly up to a few trees, but when in the trees I could not see it well because it would sit deep inside the tree where it was not visible. The bird did stay in the open on a lawn for quit awhile allowing me good looks and letting me approach within 10 feet before it flew. It seemed to like foraging on the ground where it would run/hop around and use its bill to move things around on the ground and find food that looked like insects. I never saw this bird interact with other birds.

HOW AND WHEN DID YOU POSITIVELY IDENTIFY THE BIRD, AND WHAT CLINCHED THE IDENTIFICATION FOR YOU?

It seemed very obvious off- the-bat what this bird was when I saw it and observed it. Its size, the length of the tail, the colorations on it, the spots on its chest and belly, the wing bars, etc. Another thing that helped clinch identification was after I starting looking up information about Brown Thrashers and saw what their feeding behaviors were like which was exactly the way this bird was feeding.

HOW DID YOU ELIMINATE SIMILAR SPECIES, AND WHAT WERE THEY?

The only other species that I had to rule out was a Sage Thrasher. This bird was bigger than a Sage Thrasher, and as noted in the discription the colorations were specific to a Brown Thrasher.

EXPERIENCE WITH THIS SPECIES (AND SIMILAR SPECIES):

This is my first time observing a Brown Thrasher, but I have seen many Sage Thrashers around this area and it was not one of those.

GENERAL BIRDING EXPERIENCE:

I have been birding since I was abot 12 years old and I am now 25. If there were an expertise scale of beginner, novice, intermediate, advanced, and expert, and would place myself somewhere between intermediate and advanced.

WERE PHOTO(S), VIDEO, AND/OR AUDIO OBTAINED BY YOU?:

None