They are wonderful singers!
Mockers repeat phrases several times in a row, while Brown Thrashers sing in couplets; two phrases at a time.

If you listen to Wood Thrush song online or on a bird song CD, you'll be soon able to recognize it. Wood Thrushes usually stay hidden in the trees while singing, although they often hop around the lawn afterward like Robins!

Rachel,

thanks for the info about the Thrasher vs. Mocker songs. I'll have to listen more carefully. It's getting complex since we have so many birds here including mockers.

Oh, I recognize the wood thrush song, I jsut never have seen them! I see the thrashers hopping on the ground but these are definitely the thrashers...

...I'm so confused! I keep looking for the 'looks like Brown Thrasher but doesn't have the yellow eye.'

thanks! Linda...

Brown Thrashers have much longer tails, streaks on chest, more reddish, white barring on wings

Wood Thrushes are smaller, darker, have rounder heads, big round spots on chest, pink legs, white ringed eyes, short tails

Linda, last year, a Brown Thrasher couple nested in a small oak tree on the side of my neighbor's yard, next to my driveway. I spent hours in front of my kitchen window, watching them gather twigs and sticks for the nest! For some reason, they disappear in the fall, and just a few weeks ago, I spotted one. A mocker hangs out at the top of this very tree and one day, I heard what I thought was the mocker singing his "usual" songs, but I was surprised to see it was the Thrasher. The nest is still in the tree and looks totally intact, but I have no idea whether they will use it, or choose to build a new one somewhere. Anyway, they are interesting birds and fun to watch.

Donna

First, Rachel your photos are INCREDIBLE!! And thanks for the info. I don't think I've seen a wood thrush from your explanation, just the Brown Thrasher.

Hey Donna, here we are another year...hope it's a quiet one :)

Anyway, last year a Brown Thrasher made a nest in the most unlikely place IMO. In a abelia bush (attracts bees) right next to the steps from the deck to the ground, the steps that my husband and I and 4 dogs pass CLOSELY every day, several times a day. Somedays I'd just see the beak of the one on the nest. There were 3 eggs but only 1 hatched. One day the 3 eggs were there, the next day just 1. The baby thrasher was cute as cute could be. I watched it takes its first 'tumble' out of the nest and then it's first flight. My DH cut back the bush TOO MUCH (I said 'trim it.' Grrrr......... Oh well, maybe it will find a place to nest where I can still watch it.

Now if I can only find the wood thrush who's singing the non-thraster/mocker/catbird song. Do they nest like the thrashers and robins do?

Thanks again, Linda...

The thrasher nests I've seen are low to the ground, in places like dense multi-flora thickets, whereas American Robins tend to nest about 6 ft from the ground, out in the open, and often very close to humans. A pair of Robins actually nests several times a year on one of our deck eaves.

The Wood Thrush nests are more like Robin nests in that they're round made from grass and leaves and lined with mud, but usually they are located in thick brush and trees in secluded wooded areas-not around houses.

Here are two of them

7-10-08, Knipp Hollow Rd hillside, Wood Thrush in nest, 1:22 p.m.

5-30-08, Henderson creek gully, Wood Thrush nest, 11:00 a.m.