Thrashers are a New World group of passerine birds related to mockingbirds and New World catbirds. Like these, they are in the Mimidae family. There are 15 species in one large and 4 monotypic genera.

These do not form a clade but are a phenetic assemblage. It is rather likely than not ? though by no means robustly supported ? that the Sage Thrasher is a basal lineage among a group also consisting of mockingbirds and Toxostoma thrashers. The Caribbean thrashers occupy varying positions in an assemblage consisting of them, the tremblers, and the New World catbirds. Here, the White-breasted Thrasher appears to be quite basal though it is impossible to place it anywhere with certainty, whereas the Pearly-eyed Thrasher is probably quite close to the tremblers.(Hunt et al. 2001, Barber et al. 2004)

Their common name describes the behaviour of these birds when searching for food on the ground: they use their long bills to "thrash" through dirt or dead leaves. All of these birds eat insects and several species also eat berries.

Taxonomic list

Genus Oreoscoptes

• Sage Thrasher, Oreoscoptes montanus

Genus Toxostoma ? typical thrashers

• Brown Thrasher, Toxostoma rufum
• Long-billed Thrasher, Toxostoma longirostre
• Cozumel Thrasher, Toxostoma guttatum ? possibly extinct (2006?)
• Gray Thrasher, Toxostoma cinereum
• Bendire's Thrasher, Toxostoma bendirei
• Ocellated Thrasher, Toxostoma ocellatum
• Curve-billed Thrasher, Toxostoma curvirostre
• California Thrasher, Toxostoma redivivum
• Crissal Thrasher, Toxostoma crissale
• Le Conte's Thrasher, Toxostoma lecontei
• Vizcaino Thrasher, Toxostoma arenicola

Genus Ramphocinclus

• White-breasted Thrasher, Ramphocinclus brachyurus

Genus Allenia ? formerly in Margarops

• Scaly-breasted Thrasher, Allenia fusca
  • Barbados Scaly-breasted Thrasher, Allenia fusca atlantica ? extinct (c. 1990)

Genus Margarops

• Pearly-eyed Thrasher, Margarops fuscatus

References

• Barber, Brian R.; Martínez-Gómez, Juan E. & Peterson, A. Townsend (2004): Systematic position of the Socorro mockingbird Mimodes graysoni. J. Avian Biol. 35: 195-198. (HTML abstract)

• Hunt, Jeffrey S.; Bermingham, Eldredge; & Ricklefs, Robert E. (2001): Molecular systematics and biogeography of Antillean thrashers, tremblers, and mockingbirds (Aves: Mimidae). Auk 118(1): 35?55. DOI:10.1642/0004-8038(2001)118[0035:MSABOA]2.0.CO;2 HTML fulltext without images

External links

• Thrasher videos on the Internet Bird Collection