A pair of brown thrashers eating berries.
I’m very rarely able to photograph the elusive brown thrasher. Most often I only hear them and perhaps, if lucky, catch a brief glimpse of that distinctive body shape and brown coloration, with their beautiful and expressive yellow eyes. But before I raise the camera to my eye they’re gone, back into the dense thickets where they most often hide. But they don’t go far. They can still see me, making noises, and only occasionally peeking from between branches to get a better look before hopping back in again, hidden to my view.
A curious brown thrasher, peeking around a branch, beak stained with berry juice.
So I was extraordinarily pleased to find this pair of brown thrashers feasting on ripening berries in trees one year in early June. They were so determined to feed they allowed themselves to be not only observed, but photographed. I now have incontrovertible proof this elusive bird really exists! The brown thrasher is real!
I’m watching you! A brown thrasher peering this way with those distinctive eyes.
Ok, all joking aside, these really are elusive birds, and they really do typically hide just out of my view. These are some of the few photographs I have of these beautiful birds. And though I’m very pleased to have them I’m still always on the lookout for brown thrashers, hoping I’ll get better views, that they’ll allow me to capture and share images of them with all of you, as this couple did, if only for a brief time while they gorged themselves on berries, always keeping their eyes on me to assure I didn’t approach too close.
A brown thrasher in a tree where it’s been eating berries.
Have you had any encounters with brown thrashers? They are found mostly in the eastern and mid US and a short ways into Canada. If you’re in this area keep your eyes peeled and maybe you’ll see one. Let me know if you do.
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