Interesting Thrasher

I've posted a series of photos of an interesting thrasher here in Williamsburg today and yesterday. Looking quite like a Brown Thrasher at first glance, the bird also exhibits several features which field guides and other resources point out as field marks for Long-billed: undertail steaking, whitish underparts coloration, very short primary projection, orange eye, grayish face, grayish in upper back and darker brownish coloration throughout upperparts. The photos highlight all of these features.

Particularly intriguing to me is the undertail streaking, pointed out in Pyle's Identification Guide for banders as a difference between Brown and Long-billed. Pyle also illustrates primary projection for both species, with Long-billed being much shorter. The bird here has very short projection, but is molting on the tail and primaries still growing as well.

The underparts coloration is white rather than buffy, the streaking very dark, the upper back shows grayish feathering mixed in, the face is quite grayish and the eye looks orange-ish instead of clear yellow.

The bill is slightly curved and hooked above and rather straight and pale-colored below, though resources indicate much variation.

Of course, there are individual and regional differences among birds, though I've not noticed a bird with this suite of features previously. I assume this is a hatch-year bird.

Comments by banders and other thrasher folks are welcome    taberzz@aol.com

Brian Taber

CVWO