{"id":16438,"date":"2013-06-25T05:33:33","date_gmt":"2013-06-25T11:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=16438"},"modified":"2013-06-25T06:18:32","modified_gmt":"2013-06-25T12:18:32","slug":"sage-thrasher-on-rabbitbrush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/sage-thrasher-on-rabbitbrush\/","title":{"rendered":"Sage Thrasher On Rabbitbrush"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: when I first published this post my title indicated that this bird is perched on sagebrush.\u00a0 It isn’t – it’s rabbitbrush or rabbit bush\u00a0(though there was lots of sagebrush nearby).\u00a0 Hate it when I do that!\u00a0 Thanks for the heads-up, Mia.<\/em><\/p>\n

Though there’s a fair number of Sage Thrashers on Antelope Island they’ve been a difficult quarry for me.\u00a0 Originally called the Mountain Mockingbird,\u00a0this smallest of the thrasher species is\u00a0known to be particularly elusive, frequently running on the ground rather than taking flight and\u00a0their wandering habits during migration have caused them to be poorly studied.<\/p>\n

Yesterday morning I found an unusually cooperative thrasher on the island.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"sage<\/a><\/p>\n

This species is considered to be a “sagebrush obligate”, meaning that it is largely dependent on expanses of sagebrush in order to breed successfully and that’s precisely the habitat this bird was occupying, though this particular perch is rabbitbrush.\u00a0 It may have had a nest in the area as it repeatedly popped up onto the tops of several nearby perches as I was parked alongside the road.<\/p>\n

The yellow in the background in each of these four images is the ubiquitous moth mullein, a wildflower that covers many of the island hillsides this time of year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"sage<\/a><\/p>\n

This bird came in too close for my 500 mm lens more than once – a refreshing change from my typical experience with this shy species.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"sage<\/a><\/p>\n

One time it broke out into its soft and melodious, flute-like song.\u00a0 Sage Thrashers can be marathon singers with their song often lasting several minutes without interruption (think about that!).\u00a0 In one Idaho study the average<\/em> duration of a song bout was 2 minutes and 46 seconds but one bird sang for an amazing 22 minutes!<\/p>\n

Here’s a link to the song of the Sage Thrasher <\/a>if you’d like to hear it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\"sage<\/a><\/p>\n

I tried to get some take-off shots as the bird flitted from perch to perch – this one was my best result.<\/p>\n

Later in the summer juvenile Sage Thrashers are easier to approach than the\u00a0typical adult so I have hopes of more success with the species then.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though there’s a fair number of Sage Thrashers on Antelope Island they’ve been a difficult quarry for me. Originally called the Mountain Mockingbird, this smallest of the thrasher species is known to be particularly elusive, frequently running on the ground rather than taking flight and their wandering habits during migration have caused them to be poorly studied.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,334,379],"tags":[31,1538,1536,1535,271,1537,289],"class_list":["post-16438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island","category-birds","category-sage-thrashers","tag-antelope-island-2","tag-moth-mullein","tag-mountain-mockingbird","tag-oreoscoptes-montanus","tag-sage-thrasher","tag-sagebrush-obligate","tag-song"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/sage-thrasher-9068-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-4h8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}