Biology:Thrasher

Short description: New World group of passerine birds

Thrashers
Brown thrasher Toxostoma rufum
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Superfamily:	Muscicapoidea
Family:	Mimidae
Genera
Allenia Margarops Oreoscoptes Ramphocinclus Toxostoma

Thrashers are a New World group of passerine birds related to mockingbirds and New World catbirds. Like these, they are in the family Mimidae. 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

Image	Genus	Living species
	Oreoscoptes Baird, 1858	Sage thrasher, Oreoscoptes montanus
	Toxostoma Wagler, 1831 – typical thrashers	Brown thrasher, Toxostoma rufum Long-billed thrasher, Toxostoma longirostre Cozumel thrasher, Toxostoma guttatum – possibly extinct (2006?) Grey 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 LeConte's thrasher, Toxostoma lecontei
	Ramphocinclus Lafresnaye, 1843	White-breasted thrasher, Ramphocinclus brachyurus
	Allenia Cory, 1891	Scaly-breasted thrasher, Allenia fusca Barbados scaly-breasted thrasher, Allenia fusca atlantica – extinct (c. 1990)
	Margarops P.L. Sclater, 1859	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. doi:10.1111/j.0908-8857.2004.03233.x (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