BROWN THRASHER - FOOD 
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P| DOPTERA 
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TERA 
Sagasesesss SS 
50 
_EOPTERA 40 
OUND BEETLES, - 30 
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AIPTERA 
‘HOPTERA 
[al == a SAI ey RENTS 
\CHNIDA 
IDERS) == 
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60 
The 50 
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PBERRIES, CHERRIES) oe 
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T &@SEEDS 
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10 
O 
APR. MAY JUNE JULY AUG. 
3. 29. — Food habits data on the brown thrasher from 
udy of Forbes (1880). Percentages represent the part of 
tal food identified in the stomachs of a number of thrash- 
imined each month. 
% OF TOTAL 
> ae 
On the whole field of diseases and parasites there is 
but one paper (Sachs 1953). It gave the incidence of 
blood parasites in a sample of 23 thrashers, as follows: 
Haemoproteus-17 positive, Trypanosoma—2 positive, Leu- 
cocytozoon—1 positive. 
Bartel (1960, 1962) recorded the thrasher among the 
species which disappeared from an area in Cook County 
that was sprayed with heptachlor epoxide. Scott, et al. 
(1959) also reported a notable kill of thrashers in Iroquois 
County following aerial application of dieldrin at the rate 
of 3 pounds per acre. 
Because thrashers frequent roadside vegetation, they 
would seem to be susceptible to problems with modern 
trafic. There are no recent studies, but Flint (1934— 
1935) and Starrett (1938) provided data on the question 
for an era when traffic was thinner and slower. The high- 
est kill was in east-central Illinois in 1930 when Flint 
(1934-1935) found a thrasher for every 125 miles driven, 
and thrashers comprised about 2 percent of all the birds 
killed by moving vehicles. 
SAGE THRASHER (Oreoscoptes montanus) 
There have been at least two reports of this western 
species in Illinois, a May sight record of questionable 
validity for Lincoln Park, Chicago (see Clark & Nice, 
1950:31), and a very carefully documented and valid 
record of a bird at Winnetka in winter, 1969-70. The 
bird was discovered and_ identified independently by 
Mrs. Irene Binford and Mrs. Kenneth McKeown. The 
thrasher was also studied closely by Dr. Laurence GC. Bin- 
ford, Charles T. Clark, Robert P. Russell, and many other 
observers, and was also photographed. The bird visited 
feeding stations in Winnetka, and was present from at 
least December 26, 1969 to March 8, 1970. 
Such records of birds, apparently way out of range, 
are inconsequential to the ecology of Illinois, but they are, 
nonetheless, always exciting to the student of birds. 
