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New Book on LeConte’s Thrasher

Congratulations to Jay Sheppard for publishing a new book on LeConte’s Thrashers. The Biology of a Desert Apparition: LeConte’s Thrasher (Toxostoma lecontei) is a thorough natural history of the species. The book incorporates nest records from NestWatch for the sections on reproduction, as well as photos and sound analysis from the Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library.

The LeConte’s Thrasher is a poorly-known bird of the hot, dry deserts of the American Southwest and northwestern Mexico. Mr. Sheppard’s new book will be the authoritative text on the species for some time. NestWatch is also working with Mr. Sheppard to archive his own nest records in our database, so that these records can be permanently preserved after his retirement from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.