This was a first-time event in my backyard. I saw a thrush at one of my feeders. The normally reclusive birds generally stay in the way back, near the hedges, but the lure of a large sunflower heart cake was too much for the lovely brown bird to resist.
Though the bird is commonly called a thrush, its real name is a Brown Thrasher. The generally reclusive bird occasionally makes its way onto open lawns to snatch an insect or two, but it quickly scoots away with any intrusion, real or imagined. That’s why it was so unusual to see one at the feeder closest to the house.
The Audubon Society says that a thrasher does much foraging on the ground, using its bill to flip dead leaves aside or dig in the soil as it rummages for insects. It often perches in shrubs and trees to eat berries. It will crack open acorns by pounding them with its bill. Its diet includes insects, berries, nuts. More than half of diet is insects, including beetles, caterpillars, true bugs, grasshoppers, cicadas, and many others; also eats spiders, sowbugs, earthworms, snails, crayfish, and sometimes lizards and frogs. Berries and small fruits also very important in diet, especially in fall and winter, and eats many nuts and seeds, particularly acorns.
The male Brown Thrasher will sometimes deliver its rich, melodious song of doubled phrases from the top of a tall tree.
The lovely thrush is a regular in our yard, we almost always have one pair. It’s amazing to me how birds return year after year come back to their homes.