Brown thrasher, the state bird of Georgia
The state bird of Georgia is the brown thrasher, a long-tailed, rusty-brown songbird with a streaked chest and fierce yellow eyes. It is one of North America's great singers, with more than 1,100 song types. Georgians regarded it as their state bird for decades before the legislature made it official in 1970.
How to recognize it
The brown thrasher is a long, slim songbird about 9 to 12 inches long, a little smaller than a blue jay. Its back, wings and long tail are a bright, rusty brown. Underneath it is whitish with heavy dark streaks, and it has two black-and-white bars on each wing. Its eyes are a striking yellow, and its bill is long and slightly curved. Males and females look the same. The long tail is often cocked up.
A remarkable singer
The brown thrasher is a relative of the mockingbird, and it sings like one. Its song is a long, loud string of musical phrases, usually sung in pairs, including imitations of other birds. A single thrasher may know more than 1,100 song types. Its call is a sharp, harsh tsuck or smack.
How it lives
Brown thrashers spend much of their time on or near the ground, sweeping their bills from side to side through fallen leaves to uncover beetles, caterpillars and other small creatures, and occasionally a small lizard or frog. In fall and winter they eat more berries, seeds and acorns. They nest in dense shrubs and thickets and defend their nests fiercely, sometimes striking snakes, dogs and people that come too close.
Where to see one in Georgia
Brown thrashers live in Georgia all year. Look and listen around brushy thickets, hedgerows, woodland edges and shrubby suburban yards anywhere in the state. They can be secretive, but in spring and early summer males sing from the tops of trees and are much easier to spot.
Slowly declining
The brown thrasher is still common, with a breeding population that Partners in Flight puts at about 6.2 million, and it is not considered threatened. But the North American Breeding Bird Survey shows a decline of close to one percent a year, roughly 37 percent between 1966 and 2019.
Official at last in 1970
Georgians thought of the brown thrasher as their state bird long before the law did. Governor Eugene Talmadge is reported to have proclaimed it in 1935, and the thrasher appeared in state publications as the state bird. But the state’s attorney general later ruled that Georgia actually had no official state bird. The legislature fixed that with a joint resolution approved on March 20, 1970, which named the brown thrasher the state bird and the bobwhite quail the state game bird. The designation is now section 50-3-50 of the Official Code of Georgia.
The bird also lent its name to the Atlanta Thrashers, the city’s National Hockey League team from 1999 to 2011.
Questions about the Georgia state bird
- What is the state bird of Georgia?
- The brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum), made official by a joint resolution approved on March 20, 1970.
- Does Georgia have a state game bird?
- Yes. The bobwhite quail, designated in the same 1970 resolution as the brown thrasher.
- Is the brown thrasher the only state bird of its kind?
- Yes. Georgia is the only state with the brown thrasher as its state bird, and it is the only thrasher found east of the Rocky Mountains and central Texas.
- How many songs does a brown thrasher know?
- A single brown thrasher may have more than 1,100 song types, among the largest repertoires of any North American bird.
Sources
- Brown Thrasher National Audubon Society
- Brown Thrasher overview Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- O.C.G.A. § 50-3-50 (state bird) FindLaw (text of the O.C.G.A.)
- GeorgiaInfo: Georgia State Bird (Brown Thrasher) (archived) Digital Library of Georgia / GALILEO, University of Georgia