General Description: Bendire's Thrashers (Toxostoma bendirei) are large, sexually monomorphic, gray-brown birds with a long, black, decurved bill and a big yellow eye. The throat is white and the base of the bill is dark. The front shows spots, shaped somewhat like arrowheads pointing upward and converging towards the throat. The song is a long, complex, and musical warble, similar to most thrashers, but more continuous and not broken into discrete phrases. Call is a low "chuck."

Taxonomy: Passeriformes, Mimidae.

Favored Habitat: Sonoran Desert thorn-scrub, semi-desert with mesquite and cholla cactus.

Where to Find: Don't look for Bendire's Thrashers around Las Vegas. Rather, look for them on trips to the Sonoran Desert where they can be found in southern Arizona during winter and farther north in summer (southeastern California to south-most Colorado).

Comments: Sings a soft, but long and involved song that goes on and on.