Sage thrasher (Oreoscoptes montanus)

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Abstract:

Originally called the mountain mockingbird, the sage thrasher has a long, melodious song of great variety, reminiscent of a mockingbird’s song, and is found mostly in shrub-dominated valleys and plains of the western United States. The smallest of the thrashers, it is considered a sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) obligate, generally dependent on large patches and expanses of sagebrush steppe for successful breeding. This species’ populations are mostly stable where suitable shrub-steppe habitat remains. However, its numbers have been dramatically reduced, and in some cases, local populations have been eliminated, where there has been wholesale conversion of sagebrush rangeland. The bird is poorly studied, though detailed information on its nesting ecology in Idaho and Oregon can be found. This species account provides what is known about the sage thrasher's life history, including its distribution, migration, habitat, food habits, sounds, behavior, and breeding. Also included are notes about management and conservation, as well as priorities for future research.

Notes:

Location: Online only; there's a note at ELECTRONIC FILE - Zoology. (Note too that the 1999 print version should be on file at the Wildlife Bureau shelves in the black-boxed Birds of North America collection.)

Recommended Citation: Reynolds, Timothy D., Terrell D. Rich and Daniel A. Stephens. 1999. Sage Thrasher (Oreoscoptes montanus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/463
doi:10.2173/bna.463.

SWAP (2/19/2016) Citation: Reynolds TD, Rich TD, Stephens DA. 1999. Sage thrasher (Oreoscoptes montanus). The Birds of North America Online. (A Poole, editor). Ithaca (NY): Cornell Lab of Ornithology. [accessed 2016 Feb 02]. http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/463