Greetings everyone! The time has come for us to go west and Mother Nature has decided to give us a sendoff with ~1″ of snow last night. Never fails, make plans to de-winterize in anticipation of warmer weather and then cold reality throws a left crosses. Guessing this is the last snow event here in the Midwest, but the stark reality is…we are going to Arizona and Nevada and shouldn’t be an issue anyway ha. If there is one downside, it’s that my 4th place standing in the county birding bout will take a major hit while we are chasing gorgeous Hummingbirds in the southwest. Brad will taking you through the rest of the month, but I wanted to take a few minutes out of the thrash..I mean pack day to get one more post out before powering down the computer.
Hit the jump to read more about today’s featured feathered friend – hint, it is making its debut on Intrigued and a new lifer!
In a previous post I mentioned that we have officially featured several members of the Thrasher family (link here). For those keeping score:
The Brown Thrasher (link here)
The Long Billed Thrasher (link here)
The Curve-Billed Thrasher (link here)
The Crissal Thrasher (link here and here)
The recently added Sage Thrasher (link here)
.…and thanks to Brad’s trip out west, the California Thrasher (link here)
That leaves Intrigued with just two more US ABA certified members of the Mimidae family having the Thrasher label. The lone missing species is the LeConte’s Thrasher which is tops on the hunt list for our upcoming trip. If you are working out the math in your head, that means today’s feature is the missing Thrasher – in particular, the Bendire’s Thrasher.
Similar to the LeConte’s species, the Bendire’s is limited to the southwest but Bendire’s does have a small migration region for breeding which brings it further north to include southern Nevada, Arizona, Utah and into New Mexico. In contrast Leconte’s stays rooted in southern Nevada, southeast California and western Arizona with a trickle down into the Baja and Central Mexico. Back in January of 2024 we were in the prime spot of Arizona to get this new check on my bird list.
As all birders know, being in the region does not equate to being able to actually “find” it. While staying at a campground in Apache Junction, an eBird report came through indicating that the Bendire’s was spotted at Prospector Park. Side note, Apache Junction’s park website sucks, so having to go with only a map link (link here). Apparently outside of Pickleball, the city believes there is no worthwhile reason to want to go there. Countering that opinion, we went there twice trying to get the reported Bendire’s.
The first time was earlier in the day where I had enough light to get good shots of the new lifer. One problem – I couldn’t find it. My initial thought was that this was going to be metaphorically punching fish in a barrel. I am very familiar with the general shape of a Thrasher and they are blessed with a trash talking streak that would make Conor McGregor blush. How could I miss with that combination…no luck (a kick to the groin by McGregor ha).
Ron flew down soon after this failure. The Bendire’s would be a lifer for him as well, so decided to take another swing at it (okay Bri, enough with the fight metaphors). Unfortunately, we didn’t get there until later in the day and even longer before we heard a specimen start taunting us. Squeaked the last bit of good light into the sensor for the first couple of shots in this post before having to “Thrash” about in the darkness – it’s in there, trust me!
I still get asked from time to time what my preferred shooting format is. This one is easy to answer unlike the ongoing Intrigued staff raging debates regarding auto-ISO. My quick response – RAW. Always have, always will purely based on what I can do in the digital darkroom. I also send a fine JPG copy to the backup card as a reference and failure safety net. Are the light shortfall images going to hang on any wall – nope, are they going to save a potential +1 when way past ideal in the field – you betcha. Similar to the Bobcat encounter at Anahuac NWR…wait…make that the Jocelyn Nungaray NWR a year or so back (link here), I was able to counterpunch (sigh) a few more shots. Sensors struggle on to what to focus on in the waning light, but good enough detail for a last look at the bright eyed Thrasher.
This is one of the smallest Thrashers in the family. The tale of the tape for our contender (okay, Bri, stop it, stop it now!) is an average length ranging between 9 and 9.8 inches. The Sage Thrasher is smaller with a bottom range of ~8 inches. The Bendire’s also has a smaller and less curved bill than the formidable weapons wielded by other members in the Thrasher family.
They appear much more subdued in coloring that the more boisterous and contrasted feathering of Thrashers more common to the Midwest and Texas (areas I am more familiar with). Cornell stated it best as being a “mousy brown bird with paler underparts and indistinct spotting on the breast”. Even the Sage is sharper contrasted and more ticked than this one and they are desert scrub specialists. I do like that they have triangular shaped spots versus the streaking or thinner ticking found on the others.
It is sad to report that their small range have contributed to them being given the “Red Watch” conservation status. According to Cornell, they declined 4% of their population per year between 1968 and 2015. They are projected to lose half their population by 2035 should the trend continue. Will count out the round with this final tidbit which you have probably been wondering yourself – why is it called Bendire’s. I can answer that also thanks to Cornell. They were named for Major Charles Emil Bendire who discovered them in Tucson back in 1872. Wikipedia (ugh), notes that Bendire had a private collection of 8,000 eggs which was the basis for the egg collection at Smithsonian Institute – this includes a Zone-Tailed Hawk egg he secured in his mouth while under fire by an Apache scout.
… and that is the sound of the round bell – you didn’t think I was really going to stop those references did you ha. Take care everyone, I’ll try and check in from time to time while out for the month. Meanwhile, look for upcoming adventures from Brad.
Life Intrigued 