We get a lot of these Curve-Billed Thrashers in and around the yard. Today, this bird found a peanut that I threw out for whomever wanted it. The bird took it after this photo and delivered it to wherever. Love the wildlife here.
The curve-billed thrasher (Toxostoma curvirostre) is a medium-sized desert bird common in the Sonoran and other southwestern deserts, including around towns like Wickenburg and Phoenix. It’s mostly gray-brown with a long down-curved black bill and bright yellow-orange eyes, and has faint round spots on its underparts. They forage on the ground, flipping leaf litter and digging with their bills for insects, fruit, and seeds. Their distinctive call is a loud, whistled “whit-wheet” that’s often heard in desert brush and suburban yards. These thrashers readily use cholla and other native cacti for nesting and adapt well to human-modified landscapes with desert vegetation.
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