Brown Thrasher, Oreoscoptes montanus, four short song strings of repeated motifs, short whistles, glides, mimicry, buzzes and more

Like other members of family Mimidae, Brown Thrashers are skilled mimics and song creators with an extremely varied repertoire of more than 1,100 phrases consisting of slides, whistles, gurgles, clicks, and frequent imitations of other birds.

If you hear a long seemingly random performance coming from spikey shrubs, listen carefully to the phrasing. Where true Mockingbirds tend to repeat phrases three or more times, and Gray Catbirds sing phrases almost at random with some repeated notes, Brown Thrashers tend to repeat phrases twice before continuing.

family: Mockingbirds and Thrashers image credit: "Brown Thrasher" by Alabama Extension is marked with CC0 1.0