Mystery Bird: Curve-Billed Thrasher, Toxostoma curvirostre

My best guess would be a Bendire's Thrasher. It's difficult to say because of the obstruction of the bird's chest and eye color however.

Fierce looking little thing, whatever it is.

Actually, I think maybe you can identify this as an adult Bendire's Thrasher -- the base of the lower mandible appears to be pale, at least along the tomia. According to the only reference I could find that lists such things, juvenile Curve-billed Thrasher's bills should be dark all the way to the base. Unfortunately, that reference is rather out of date, and I wouldn't be too surprised to find out that this isn't as true as they thought.

Not sure what kind of thrasher it is, but I believe it is a fledgling. It's posture reminds me of begging behavior. There also appears to be a red spot under the wing; could this possibly be a blowfly larva?

This is a juvenile Curve-billed Thrasher photographed in our back yard in Phoenix, AZ, as it begged from an adult Curve-billed Thrasher on April 9, 2009.

Juvenile Curve-billed closely resembles adult Bendire's Thrasher, and can lead to false reports. This is a well known issue among experienced AZ birders and something that is not given enough coverage in field guides. You need to check a specialty book like Kevin Zimmer's "The Western Bird Watcher" for a detailed review of the fine points.

The bill on Bendire's is shorter and straighter, and on that basis alone can be eliminated for this image. Yes, Bendire's shows paler color at the base of the lower mandible, while Curve-billed is dark on both upper and lower mandibles. The impression of paleness in this image comes from the pale gape apparent on most recently fledged birds.

There are three images of this bird in the Curve-billed Thrasher gallery on my web site. [url=http://www.richditch.com/page2/CBTH/files/page38-1009-full.html]This image[/url] shows the head lifted slightly more for a better view of the throat (and gape).

We get Bendire's Thrashers in our yard on occasion, but haven't had any in at least the past year. I will see if I have enough decent shots to add a gallery on my web site of them, or at least a head shot for my photo blog.