There’s a common bird in Mohave County that is anything but common in how fierce it looks or how beautifully it can sing. The curve-billed thrasher (Toxostoma curvirostre) is a familiar sight in many people’s backyards. From a distance, it appears to be an ordinary, rather plain brown-gray bird, but up close, the piercing yellow-orange eyes and namesake long, curved bill are rather striking.
And then there’s its voice. Thrashers are in the same family, Mimidae, as mockingbirds, and it becomes apparent as soon as the thrasher sings. While perhaps not quite on the master level of a mockingbird, the thrasher still has quite a beautiful song and it can also mimic sounds and other bird calls like a mockingbird, to some extent.
Thrashers are so named for their custom of hopping or running along the ground, foraging for food by thrashing away leaves and debris with their impressive bills. Curve-billed thrashers tend to stay in the same area year-round and are not migratory. Comfortable around human habitation, they are common bird feeder visitors when seed or feed is laid on the ground or a platform.
They eat a variety of foods, from insects and arachnids to nuts, seeds, and fruit. Thrashers will also happily pluck some dry cat or dog food from an outside bowl. Thrashers are well-adapted to the desert landscape and are particularly comfortable around cactus, often perching on it or nesting in it.
Bowl-shaped nests are built starting around February and two to five pale blue, s.