AROUND TOWN

Audubon Sightings 
By Walter L. Meagher; Photos by Wayne Colony

The Curve-billed Thrasher

My eye is drawn to the long, sharp, curved bill: it must be dangerous, able to snatch a lizard. This bird is definitely not a vegetarian. The orange eye with the black iris is a wee bit unnerving. The Curve-billed Thrasher performs no vocal antics like its cousin, the Eastern Mockingbird, although both are members of the same family (Mimics; in Latin, Mimidae). Armament aside, when courting, the male Curve-billed Thrasher follows the female, singing a soft, musical song.

They share nesting duties, except only the female sits on the eggs all through the night. 

The curved bill serves as a rake. Often, in its habitat of open brushland dotted with mesquite, low spiny shrubs and small trees—El Charco is ideal habitat, as is all the Central Plateau—you may see the Curve-billed Thrasher scratching leaves. So vigorously does it work that leaves and twigs leap off the ground, exposing insect larvae, centipedes, spiders and more—hence “thrasher.” At times, the bird uses its bill to dig for food, bracing itself with its long tail, uncovering an organism that only moments ago felt secure beneath the earth. This is the point about birds: they are feathered tool-kits. 

The Curve-billed Thrasher is fit for many tasks, but what do we find it doing on the garambullo in Wayne’s photograph? If there were a contest to name the most esteemed tall cactus plant growing wild in San Miguel, the winner, surely, would be garambullo. The lover of neoclassical architecture, with emphasis on balanced proportions, might admire the plant’s structural symmetry. Its many stems point skyward to form an elaborate candelabra. Its spines are stiff and sharp but the fruits, unlike those of most local cacti, are unarmed, having neither spines nor barbed hairs. Notice that the flowers are borne along the vertical ribs of the plant. Has the thrasher in the photograph, come for postre, having already had a centipede and plenty of ants? The mature fruits are round, purple, sweet and delicious, and the thrasher knows this as well as we do.