photo by Phil Swanson

Toxostoma curvirostre
L 11″ (28 cm).

Song or calls:
Listen (NGPC audio)

Distinctive call is loud “whit-wheet?.” Song includes low trills and warbles.

Description: Sexes similar. Grayish-brown above, with darker long tail; faint streaking on breast; buffy on lower belly; all dark, long curved bill; pale red-orange eyes; and narrow light wing bars.

Habitat: Streamside brush, canyons, and semiarid brushlands.

Where in Nebraska: Accidental. Specimens found in Lincoln and Sioux Counties. One individual observed in Red Willow County in 1969.

Fun Facts: Nests are built of twigs in the spiny tangle of a cholla cactus. The nests appear to defy entrance, but the thrashers easily move in and out.

 
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