Brown Thrasher

Red-backed Mockingbird ( Toxostoma rufum )

The Red-backed Mockingbird ( Toxostoma rufum ) is a North American songbird.

Features

The 29 cm long Red-backed Mockingbird is colored reddish brown on the upper side, lower side white with brown stripes. The bird has two white wing bars and a long tail with white outer tail feathers. The long beak is bent slightly downwards.

Occurrence

The Red-backed Mockingbird lives in southern Canada and the central and eastern United States in forest regions, bushes, hedges and gardens. The northern populations migrate in the winter to the south.

Behavior

The elusive bird on the ground looking under leaves for insects, earthworms and sometimes lizards. Nuts, seeds and berries to supplement the diet.

Reproduction

In a cup nest of twigs, lined with finer plant material in undergrowth or dense understory birds incubate both parents alternately two to six eggs about two weeks. With only nine days the young birds fledge. The birds defend their nests aggressively and attack dogs and people, sometimes so violent that blood flowing. The Red-backed Mockingbird breeds usually two, rarely three times a year.

Others

The Rufous - mockingbird is the official state bird of Georgia, and the namesake of the Atlanta Thrashers, the club of the National Hockey League from Atlanta.