Chasing a Desert Apparition: LeConte’s Thrasher

LeConte’s Thrasher is a shy and little-studied species found in the hottest and driest deserts of the American Southwest and northwestern Mexico. Mr. Sheppard has spent years studying this enigmatic bird. He studied 350 color-marked thrashers near Maricopa, California, which resulted in a better understanding of their daily lives, territories and movements. Other fascinating aspects of this shy bird’s life include information on reproduction, behavior, and vocalizations, as well as feeding and prey preferences.  Jay’s monograph on this species was published by the Western Field Ornithologists in 2018.

Jay is a retired ornithologist of the US Fish & Wildlife Service and lives in Laurel, Maryland. He served in the US Navy after graduating from Miami University in Ohio. He later went to Long Beach State University for graduate studies in biology. The thrashers were the
subject of those studies. Jay then worked for 5 years in the Bird Banding Lab at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel. He then spent 20 years in the endangered species program office in Washington, DC. He is a Fellow of the American Ornithological Society and a memberof the Maryland Ornithological Society, among other groups.