Curve-Billed Thrashers Vocalizing Wonders

The first time that I saw this bird I was amazed! I was walking along “Cemetery Pond Trail, ” near my home in Churintzio, Michoacan when I heard a long and intricately melodious birdsong a hundred or so yards off in the distance. Not having “discovered” birding yet, I was totally without any idea what species of bird was singing so beautifully so as I started to get closer to those wonderful sounds, I began imagining that the bird would be equally as gorgeous as the song emanating from it. Then when I was twenty or so feet away, I saw perched on the upmost paddle of a large blooming nopal cactus a rather homely and, except for its decurved bill and beady orange eyes, nondescript bird. I would soon learn that the incongruously looking creator of such a glorious song was a curve-billed thrasher.

Curved-billed thrashers, cuitlacoche piquicurvos in Spanish, are slender, 10-11" birds weighing about 3 ounces that have long, thin moderately down- curved bills, robust legs and feet, and a long tail. Their upper bodies are a pale grayish brown with two narrow whitish wingbars and a white throat while their underparts are lighter-colored with mottled and spotted chests. While their bills, legs, and feet are greyish black, they have a white-tipped tail which is slightly darker than the rest of its upper body. In addition to their bill, their most unmistakable feature are vivid orange or red/orange eyes.

Of the eleven species of thrashers that occur in Mexico, the non-migratory curve-billed thrasher, has the broadest range and is the only one that resides in the state where I live. Except for Baja California in the country’s far northwestern region, they are found throughout most of northern and central Mexico all of the way down to the state of Oaxcaca. In the U.S. they primarily occur in the western two-thirds of Texas, the southern halves of Arizona and New Mexico, the adjoining corners of Kansas and Colorado, and a small portion of the Oklahoma panhandle.

Able to tolerate multiple habitats including deserts, they are found in arid to semi-arid, open and semi-open areas with scattered bushes, thorn brush, scrub, trees, and cacti. In the U.S., they decidedly prefer shrub and grasslands with cholla cacti, mesquite, and palo verde trees. In most of their range in Mexico they have a preference for terrain that includes nopal/prickly pear cacti.

My almost daily experiences with them, as they are year round residents, definitely confirms what the literature has to say about their habits and behaviors. What I have observed is that they are both perching birds and ground foragers. Since a large part of their diet consists of insects, spiders, berries, and seeds (with an occasional lizard of which there are plenty in Churintzio), I often view them either singly or in pairs on the ground utilizing their specially adapted curved bills and strong legs and feet either poking, probing, and digging holes in the oftentimes hard soil or tossing around leaves and other plant debris that are under shrubs and cacti- in other words, "thrashing" about in the pursuit of food. On my birding walks, I am always careful when approaching nopal as frequently, especially during the two times of year when they sprout their lovely brilliantly-colored blossoms and fruit, the thrashers are feasting on the prickly pears while providing me with fantastic viewing and photo opportunities.

In fact, of all of the eight dozen or so species of "local" birds that I have thousands of pictures of, far and away I have more pictures of these thrashers. Though perhaps not as lovely (I am being overly and superficially kind) as some of the others in my area like streak-backed orioles, golden-fronted-woodpeckers, or vermilion flycatchers, they sure are more plentiful, seen in more locations, not as skittish-similar to the beautiful and also fantastic singing blue grosbeaks- as you can get fairly close to them, and just as if not more behaviorally fascinating to behold. Moreover, frequently, in a rapid and jerky fashion, they can be seen flying from one cactus to another or from one bush to another, thus providing for more "good looks." .

However, it is when they are vocalizing that they provide the best auditory and visual delights. Commonly paired for life, perched prominently most often on nopal, during mating season they serenade their mate with a pleasingly loud and melodic courting song; this long song, sometimes repeating phrases 2-3 times and sometimes not, consists of a lyrical and intricate series of low trills and warbles. If not heard and seen singing, often coming from multiple directions, and always bringing a smile to my face as I knowingly and playfully ask myself out loud who is repeatedly sharply whistling "wit-Weet" or "wit-Weet-wit," when I frequently hear their calls.

Many times near the pond there is a harmonious bird "wit symphonic" performance going on. Multiple thrashers entertain with their rapid bursts of wit-weets while simultaneously those whimsical and bizarre-looking cuckoos, groove-billed anis, musically call out with longer high pitched but less frequent wits. Yet, what is both confusing and fascinating to me is when I think that I am hearing the song or call of the curve-billed thrasher but in reality what I am hearing is, perched in a tree is a close family member of thrashers, a Northern mockingbird, a seasonal visitor to our area, mimicking the thrasher's vocalizations!

Now, with hundreds if not thousands of sightings and hearings, it is a few years after I had joyously experienced my first curve-billed thrasher that could also aptly be called a "warbling whistling thrasher" befitting their cumulative distinctive behaviors. You know what? Every time that I experience them, I am still enchantingly amazed!