Sage Thrasher, Oreosciotes montanus

Sage Thrasher, Oreoscoptes montanus. Photograph taken in the coastal bush of the greater Bahía de los Ángeles area, Baja California, November 2021. Photograph courtesy of George Flicker, Bahía de los Ángeles. Identification courtesy of Mary & George Flicker, Bahía de los Ángeles.

The Sage Thrasher, Oreoscoptes montanus, is a member of the Mimidae Family of Mockingbirds and Thrashers, which has thirty-four members place in ten genera, and is the sole global species of the Oreoscoptes Genus. They are historically known as the Mountain Mockingbird and in Mexico as cuicacoche chato and cuitlacoche de artemisia.

The Sage Thrasher is the smallest of the thrashers. The males and female are similar in appearance with consistent year-round plumage, with the males being slightly larger than the females. They are a drab brown color with brownish-gray upperparts, with slightly darker feather centers forming indistinct streaking, especially on crown. Their head has an indistinct whitish supercilium, a pale line behind ear coverts, and a whitish malar region bordered by a black streak at sides of throat. Their wings are a darker than the back and they have two narrow whitish wing-bars and pale tertial edges. The tail is short and also darker than the back and the outer rectrices and broadly tipped in white. Their underparts are off-white and broadly streaked with dark brown spots. Their bill is short, straight and black with a grayish lower mandible the basal half is a dull yellow to pinkish, their iris is lemon-yellow to amber, and their legs and feet are olivaceous.

The Sage Thrasher reside within arid to semiarid sagebrush plains, arid shrub, grassland with scattered bushes, and open piñon-juniper woodland, primarily in arid or semiarid environments and are rarely found in close proximity to human developments. They primarily consume insects, and small quantities of arthropods and plant materials as-well-as seasonal berries and small fruit. They are considered to be short-distance migrators wintering in warmer southern latitudes. They are known for their unique long lasting flutelike song but flee by running along the ground when approached by humans. Their life spans have not been determined. The Sage Thrasher is poorly studied and very little about their biology and behavior patterns has been documented.

The Sage Thrasher is best distinguished from other thrashers by its smaller size and short bill, which shows little or no curvature. Bendire’s Thrasher, Toxostoma bendirei (indistinct buffy wingbars, buff underparts with faint triangular spots, a longer decurved bill, and longer tail) and Gray Thrasher, Toxostoma cinereum (larger in stature and longer, curved bill, longer tail, golden yellow eyes) are somewhat similar in appearance.

The Sage Thrasher is a wintertime visitor to Mexico and found in Baja California, north and central Sonora and from northern Chihuahua and Nuevo León south in the interior to Durango.

From a conservation perspective the Sage Thrasher is currently considered to be of Least Concern, however, their populations are in significant decline in certain areas which is attributed to loss of sagebrush nesting habitat due to human development. They unable to reproduce and maintain populations without access to sagebrush.