Mystery Bird: Curve-billed Thrasher, Toxostoma curvirostre

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[Mystery bird] Curve-billed Thrasher, Toxostoma curvirostre, photographed in Starr County Park, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]

Image: Joseph Kennedy, 5 April 2008 [larger view].

Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1000s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.

Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.

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Since no one's on it yet.... Clearly a thrasher, by the big curved beak. Not a Brown Thrasher (my first thought, from the name; I've never seen one), but probably a Curve-billed Thrasher, by the roundish spots on the breast and the overall coloring.

Agree on Curve-billed Thrasher. It's the spittin' image of Sibley's "adult Texas" illustration. I note the "round spots" on the breast, the eye that is scarier-looking than Bendire's "paler yellow iris on average", and the failure to display Bendire's "shorter, straighter bill, usually pale a base."

I also agree on Curve-billed Thrasher, and would say it's of the 'oberholseri' race due to the range, and the whitish wing-bar.

By Reid Barclay (not verified) on 20 Feb 2009 #permalink

Si señor.. Curved-billed Thrasher

By José Cordero (not verified) on 20 Feb 2009 #permalink