{"id":134770,"date":"2024-09-20T02:44:10","date_gmt":"2024-09-20T07:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=134770"},"modified":"2024-09-20T06:41:18","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T11:41:18","slug":"adult-brown-thrasher-with-a-slight-bill-deformity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/09\/20\/adult-brown-thrasher-with-a-slight-bill-deformity\/","title":{"rendered":"Adult Brown Thrasher With A Slight Bill Deformity"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was excited when an adult Brown Thrasher showed up yesterday and began moving toward me. I was already zoomed back a bit for the first few photos of the bird.<\/p>\n

\"BrownBrown Thrasher with a slight bill deformity \u2013 Canon R7, f8, 1\/320, ISO 800, -0.3 EV, Canon 100-400mm at 330mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

But the thrashers have been especially skittish this spring and summer, so I took a few images before zooming out to 400mm.<\/p>\n

What I didn\u2019t notice at the time was that the thrasher had a slightly deformed bill. I was paying attention to and focused on the thrasher’s movement.<\/p>\n

\"BrownBrown Thrasher with a slight bill deformity – Inset \u2013 Canon R7, f8, 1\/320, ISO 800, -0.3 EV, Canon 100-400mm at 330mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

In the inset shown above, the top of the bill is slightly longer than it should be and has crossed over to the left side of the lower part of the bill. The top part of the thrasher’s bill should be centered on the lower part.<\/p>\n

This certainly isn’t the worst deformed bill I have ever seen, but it is deformed.<\/p>\n

The worst bill deformity I’ve ever seen was on a Red-tailed Hawk I found with a severe case of long-billed syndrome<\/span><\/a> (also known as Avian Keratin Disorder) near Grantsville, Utah. That hawk’s bill was so deformed that it probably didn\u2019t live much longer. I spoke to and confirmed with Bud Anderson, an expert on this syndrome in birds, that nothing could be done for the hawk.<\/p>\n

The Red-tailed Hawk\u2019s bill was horribly deformed. You can read more about that hawk and Bud Anderson’s thoughts, along with his assessment of the condition from evaluating my photos, here<\/span><\/a>. My sighting of this hawk and the resulting images were the first confirmed raptor case of long-billed syndrome in Utah, as far as Bud knew.<\/p>\n

\"ForagingForaging adult Brown Thrasher in Arkansas \u2013 Canon R7, f8, 1\/320, ISO 800, -0.3 EV, Canon 100-400mm at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This Brown Thrasher looks and acted very healthy while I photographed them foraging. I know it will continue to survive and thrive despite the slightly deformed bill. Other birds with more deformed bills have.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Check here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Brown Thrasher photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was excited when an adult Brown Thrasher showed up yesterday and began moving toward me. I was already zoomed back a bit for the first few photos of the bird. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":134762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13950,27,14150,13951],"tags":[4004,15745,13965,15744,1068,14152,4136,13931,3747,10265,821,13964,2315,4613,735,14151,8018,13966],"class_list":["post-134770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arkansas","category-avian","category-brown-thrashers","category-sebastian-county","tag-adult","tag-akd","tag-arkansas","tag-avian-keratin-disorder","tag-bill-deformity","tag-brown-thrasher","tag-foraging","tag-garden","tag-grass","tag-inset","tag-mimids-2","tag-sebastian-county","tag-summer-3","tag-thrasher","tag-thrashers","tag-toxostoma-rufum","tag-urban","tag-yard"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/brown-thrasher-foraging-bill-deformity-inset-arkansas-mia-mcpherson-2192.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-z3I","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":114370,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/07\/14\/brown-thrasher-photos-from-arkansas\/","url_meta":{"origin":134770,"position":0},"title":"Brown 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2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Towards the end of last month I found a Sage Thrasher high in the mountains in riparian habitat which surprised me. A lot.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sage Thrasher in riparian habitat, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/sage-thrasher-riparian-habitat-mia-mcpherson-6554.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/sage-thrasher-riparian-habitat-mia-mcpherson-6554.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/sage-thrasher-riparian-habitat-mia-mcpherson-6554.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/sage-thrasher-riparian-habitat-mia-mcpherson-6554.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":100621,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/03\/13\/looking-for-my-first-of-year-sage-thrasher\/","url_meta":{"origin":134770,"position":4},"title":"Looking For My First Of Year Sage Thrasher","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 13, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"March 13th is an anniversary of sorts for me. The date is the earliest that I have seen and photographed a Sage Thrasher in northern Utah.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fluffy Sage Thrasher adult warming up on a rock, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/sage-thrasher-adult-on-rock-mia-mcpherson-0248.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/sage-thrasher-adult-on-rock-mia-mcpherson-0248.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/sage-thrasher-adult-on-rock-mia-mcpherson-0248.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/sage-thrasher-adult-on-rock-mia-mcpherson-0248.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":66616,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/03\/09\/juvenile-immature-and-adult-sage-thrashers\/","url_meta":{"origin":134770,"position":5},"title":"Juvenile, Immature And Adult Sage Thrashers","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The comparisons I have made between juvenile, immature and adult Sage Thrashers are basic, there are more ways to determine their age but I wanted to keep the comparisons simple.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Sage Thrasher on Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/sage-thrasher-juvenile-on-rock-mia-mcpherson-5075.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/sage-thrasher-juvenile-on-rock-mia-mcpherson-5075.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/sage-thrasher-juvenile-on-rock-mia-mcpherson-5075.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/sage-thrasher-juvenile-on-rock-mia-mcpherson-5075.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}