The gray thrasher (''Toxostoma cinereum'') is a medium-sized

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

belonging to the family Mimidae. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the Baja California peninsula of

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The gray thrasher has two subspecies, the nominate ''T. c. cinereum'' and ''T. c. mearnsi''.

Description

The gray thrasher is long. Four males weighed and a female . It is gray-brown above with cinnamon tones on the rump. Its underparts are white with arrow-shaped black spots. The outer tail feathers have white tips. Its eyes are golden yellow. The subspecies are similar, with ''T. c. mearnsi'' being somewhat darker overall.Soberanes-González, C. A., C. I. Rodríguez-Flores, M. d. C. Arizmendi, G. M. Kirwan, and T. S. Schulenberg (2020). Gray Thrasher (''Toxostoma cinereum''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.grathr1.01 retrieved July 25, 2021

Distribution and habitat

The gray thrasher is found only in Mexico's Baja California, where its range extends from approximately north latitude 31°14' to its southern tip. On the east side of the peninsula, however, it is found only as far north as approximately 28°. ''T. c. mearnsi'' occupies approximately the northern half of the range and the nominate subspecies the southern half. The gray thrasher inhabits arid and semi-arid landscapes. Most are open to semi-open with cacti, scrub, or scattered bushes and trees. In elevation it ranges from sea level to .

Behavior

Feeding

The gray thrasher typically forages on the ground or low down in vegetation. Its diet is not well studied but is known to include

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

s and cactus fruits.

Breeding

Subspecies ''T. c. mearnsi'' of the gray thrasher breeds in March and April; ''T. c. cinereum'' breeds from May to mid-July in the far south. The species' nest is a cup made of twigs and lined with finer materials such as grass. ''T. c. mearnsi'' almost always places its nest in cacti, while ''T. c. cinereum'' uses cacti, thorny shrubs, and mesquite trees. Nests are typically within of the ground. The clutch size is two to four.

Vocalization

The gray thrasher's song is "a loud, fairly scratchy warbling...repeated two or three times"', and often sung from a high open perch. Its calls include "a rolled, rippling to rough ''whirr-rr-rr'' or ''chirr-rri-rrit'', and a gruff ''chrek''".

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed the gray thrasher as being of Least Concern. It has a very large range and an apparently stable population of at least 20,000 mature individuals.