The Long-billed Thrasher Is a Native Songbird Exclusive to South Texas and Northeast Mexico
By: Roberto R. Calderón, Ph.D. © 2015 Roberto R. Calderón
The Long-billed Thrasher (Toxostoma longirostre) is a large native songbird of South Texas and the lower Río Bravo. The Long-billed Thrasher is a year-round resident of the region it inhabits; it does not migrate out of the region. Its known southernmost territory extends down the Gulf Coast past Matamoros, Tamaulipas and Brownsville, Texas to the area of the state of Veracruz. Toward the east its range extends into the area of Corpus Christi, Texas and to the north its reach is Val Verde County and adjoining area. It’s a wonder that no known high school sports team in this entire region of South Texas has claimed the name of the Thrasher as their mascot, for it is a species that inhabits no other known region of the world. South Texas and Northeast Mexico constitute the predominant region occupied by this songbird species. Mexicans refer to this songbird in Spanish as Cuitlacoche or Cuitlacoche pico largo. The French refer to the species as Moqueur à long bec. Another English name for this songbird is Sennett’s Thrasher.
This note on this songbird is adopted from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds online encyclopedia. This comprehensive resource to the birds of North America especially those of the United States, Mexico and Canada, is available to anyone who has access to the worldwide Web. The two images represented here were obtained on December 28, 2014, at the Amistad National Recreation Area in Val Verde County, Texas, just north of Del Rio, where this and other species may be observed while hiking the available trails which are open to the public.
As songbirds go both males and females of the species are rather large as they tend to grow to a length of between 10 and 12 inches. Similarly, they can have a wingspan of up to 13 inches, and weigh as much as 2.4 ounces (68 grams). The Long-billed Thrasher is thus considered to be a large, long-tailed songbird. Its upperparts are grayish brown. The juvenile looks similar to the adult but duller, and has indistinct buff spotting on its nape and rump, buff wingbars, and yellow instead of orange-colored eyes. The adult of the species has orange-colored eyes.
At least two other relatives of the Long-billed Thrasher inhabit parts or all of its range either year-round or during winter. The Curve-billed Thrasher (Toxostoma curvirostre) possesses a range that is far more extensive than that of its Long-billed cousin as it extends far to the north, west and south and is found in most of Mexico and parts of the American Southwest including Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and the most southeastern tip of California bordering Arizona and Baja California Norte. The other resident of the Long-billed Thrasher’s range during winter is that of its cousin, the more brightly brown and rusty colored Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum), whose winter range overlaps into parts of South Texas but does not necessarily extend into Mexico. The Brown Thrasher is more of an eastern and southern U.S. songbird, and it is one also that migrates short distances north in summer to breed in areas that include most of the Midwestern and northeastern U.S. states as well as parts of the south central and southeast Canadian provinces. The Brown Thrasher does not breed in Mexico as do the Long-billed Thrasher and its relatively more far-ranging cousin the Curve-billed Thrasher.
The Long-billed Thrasher is a resident of thick brushy areas otherwise referred to by many in South Texas as monte or chaparral. Its preferred habitat is riparian woodland and dense, scrubby thickets that contain generous stands of mesquite. Its preferred food includes insects, spiders, snails and berries; it is an omnivore. Typically the female of the species lays between 2-5 eggs in its clutch and these are pale greenish white which may be minutely and heavily speckled with dingy brown marks. The Long-billed Thrasher forages on the ground and it sweeps its sizeable bill sideways in leaf litter to uncover its prey. While its conservation status is that of “least concern,” reports of its decline in the Rio Grande Valley during the past century due to the clearing of the chaparral have been noted.
As a songbird, the Long-billed Thrasher and all thrashers are related to the mockingbirds. However its repertoire does not appear to include mimicry like the Northern Mockingbird’s repertoire. Ornithologists have noted that the Brown Thrasher is North America’s king of the songbirds because its repertoire of around 1,100 songs and sounds (including mimicry) is larger or more complex than that of the Northern Mockingbird and all other birds found in the U.S. Among the songs and sounds that the Brown Thrasher mimics, for example, are those of the Northern Mockingbird, Chuck-will’s-widows, Wood Thrushes, and Northern Flickers.
Native to the South Texas and Northeast Mexico region whose main tributary is the Río Bravo, the Long-billed Thrasher is a beautiful and rather large songbird little known by the people who reside in its known range and territory. Mexicans call this songbird Cuitlacoche as indicated. According to the Real Academia Española’s online edition this is a word from the ancient Mexica who spoke náhuatl, cuitlacochi, from cuitla, which meant rear, excrement, and perhaps from the word cochi, which meant to sleep. Cuitlacoche refers also to a black or dark mushroom that is edible and is a parasite to corn. This songbird was known to the ancient Mexicans and its name reflects as much. Whether the Mexicans named the bird as such due to its rustic gray-brown-colors or not is difficult to say. But were its name in English adopted by South Texas high school sports teams today then perhaps one day we might readily hear the cheers encouraging the team on to victory: Go Thrashers!
