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...

Thrashers are a rare treat in some places. My area used to be lousy with them, but now I only see them rarely. They like human structures, I would find them in my old house, nesting in chimneys, etc. Nice bird.

Thanks! Seeing the nest building 'made my day'! They have seen me around now for quite awhile so hope I can get closer & get a close up of some of the nest material showing in the 'cubbyhole' in the cactus they found to set up residence.Only last year was I ever close enough to verify it did have the orange ring around the eye but the curved bill has always been obvious. Our state bird is the funny looking & acting roadrunner! They mostly run on the ground but do fly a bit & seem to prefer to live around buildings & populations of humans. Can even kill a rattlesnake I've read. One does live in our neighborhood & likes to run on the roof peak of our house & when it sees me w/camera it almost looks like it stops to pose for me!

From the photo of the thrasher by claire, I guess the thrashers we have here in New Mexico are a different variety; ours here have a dusty brown body-no stripes, darker back & wings, but has the very distinctive orange ring in the eyes! These that began with just one pair a few years ago that foraged on the ground under our trees, now we have a couple dozen or more in our yard/area & have become very fearless around other birds as well as our four dogs! I can get right up to their nests & 'talk' to them & they show no fear of me (or the squirrel!) at all. Haven't figured out yet why the seemingly first pair built the 2-story apt. in the tree cactus!! Sure is a secure place to nest I admit! We often get a new variety of birds for awhile, then they disappear only to have another variety come; the thrashers seem to have replaced the grackles pretty much the past two years in my yard.... yet the mourning doves seem here to stay!