Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
Learn more about these drawings.
Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds
Photo: B. Steele/Vireo
LeConte's Thrasher
Toxostoma lecontei
| Conservation status | Has disappeared from some areas where irrigation has converted desert to farmland. Still common in appropriate habitat. |
|---|---|
| Family | Mockingbirds and Thrashers |
| Habitat | Desert flats with sparse growth of saltbush. Lives in more open habitats than other thrashers, on dry flats with only scattered low shrubs. Found especially in areas of sparse saltbush, also on creosote bush flats in some areas; mainly where there are a few slightly larger mesquites or cholla cactus. |
Photo Gallery
Feeding Behavior
Forages almost entirely on the ground, walking and running rapidly on bare open soil. Finds much of its food by digging in the soil with its bill.
Eggs
3-4, sometimes 2. Pale greenish blue, lightly dotted with brown. Incubation is by both parents, about 15 days. Young: Both parents feed nestlings. Young leave nest about 13-17 days after hatching. 2 broods per year, perhaps rarely 3.
Young
Both parents feed nestlings. Young leave nest about 13-17 days after hatching. 2 broods per year, perhaps rarely 3.
Diet
Mostly insects. Diet is not known in detail, but feeds mainly on insects, including grasshoppers, ants, beetles, and many others. Also eats spiders, centipedes, and other arthropods, and sometimes small lizards; eats a few berries and seeds.
Nesting
May mate for life. Pairs remain together at all seasons on permanent territories. In courtship, male may present female with twig or insect. Male sings to defend territory, beginning in mid-winter; nesting may begin in February or even January, but lasts until June in some areas. Nest: Usually placed less than 5' above the ground. Low, dense cholla cactus favored as nest sites; will also nest in saltbush, mesquite, or other low shrubs. Nest (built by both sexes) is a bulky open cup of thorny twigs, lined with rootlets, leaves, plant fibers, sometimes with softer inner lining of plant down.
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- All Seasons - Common
- All Seasons - Uncommon
- Breeding - Common
- Breeding - Uncommon
- Winter - Common
- Winter - Uncommon
- Migration - Common
- Migration - Uncommon
Songs and Calls
Song is a loud, rich melody recalling that of a California Thrasher, but less harsh and with infrequent repetition of phrases. Calls are a rising whit and tu-weep.How climate change could affect this bird's range
In the broadest and most detailed study of its kind, Audubon scientists have used hundreds of thousands of citizen-science observations and sophisticated climate models to predict how birds in the U.S. and Canada will react to climate change.
Read more: climate.audubon.org
Each map is a visual guide to where a particular bird species may find the climate conditions it needs to survive in the future. We call this the bird’s “climatic range.”
The colors indicate the season in which the bird may find suitable conditions— blue for winter, yellow for summer (breeding), and green for where they overlap (indicating their presence year-round).
The darker the shaded area, the more likely it is the bird species will find suitable climate conditions to survive there.
The outline of the approximate current range for each season remains fixed in each frame, allowing you to compare how the range will expand, contract, or shift in the future.
The first frame of the animation shows where the bird can find a suitable climate today (based on data from 2000). The next three frames predict where this bird’s suitable climate may shift in the future—one frame each for 2020, 2050, and 2080.
You can play or pause the animation with the orange button in the lower left, or select an individual frame to study by clicking on its year.
LeConte's Thrasher In the News More News
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