Brown Thrasher

Toxostoma rufum

Year-round in CharlotteUncommon

The take

A fox-brown skulker in the shrubs — and North Carolina's other famous songster, with phrases in pairs.

How to ID it

  • Fairly large, slender songbird with a long, slightly downcurved bill and a long tail often cocked upward
  • Foxy brown above with heavy dark streaking on whitish underparts and bright yellow eyes
  • Skulks in shrubby tangles and forages on the ground, singing loud paired musical phrases from treetops

Field marks at a glance

Size
medium
Head
gray-brown face, yellow eye
Call
musical phrases sung in pairs

Where & when

Year-round in Charlotte

Learn more

Sources