Le Conte's Thrasher
Common
Name: Le Conte's Thrasher (LCTH)
Scientific
Name:
Toxostoma
lecontei
Global/Continental
Conservation Status: Not on IUCN 2004 Red List
National-level
Conservation Status:
U.S.
– Bird of Conservation Concern
Key
Reference(s):
BNA No. 230 (Sheppard 1996)
Distribution:
Resident [lecontei group]
in s California (the Carrizo Plain of e San Luis Obispo County, and the
San Joaquin Valley desert from Fresno County south to Kern County); and
from e California (east of the Sierra Nevada north to s Mono and Inyo
counties), s Nevada, sw Utah, and w and s-c Arizona south to ne Baja
California and w Sonora; and [arenicola
group] in w-c Baja California (Pacific south from lat. 29º N south to
lat. 26º N). Casual [lecontei
group] in nw
Arizona
(AOU 1998).
Habitat
Associations:
Relatively barren, open desert scrub, particularly saltbush and
creosote bush associations with dry, sandy washes (AOU 1998).
Source(s)
of Research/monitoring Needs: Arizona Bird Conservation
Plan; Nevada Bird Conservation Plan; BNA No. 230 (Sheppard 1996); PIF
Monitoring Needs document (Partners in Flight Science Committee 2004)
PIF
Continental Plan Monitoring Needs Category: Mo2 (BBS trends have very
low precision)
RESEARCH/MONITORING NEEDS (source(s) of needs)
Monitoring
- Priority
monitoring action – Conduct early spring desert surveys (PIF
Monitoring Needs doc)
- Second
priority monitoring action – Conduct species-specific surveys (PIF
Monitoring Needs doc)
- High
priority candidate for rapid status assessment (PIF Monitoring Needs
doc)
- Supplemental
LCTH Surveys
- Conduct surveys in high-use areas (recreational vehicles) with good
LCTH habitat (
Arizona
); Study LCTH population and range trends (
Arizona
)
- See
needs under “Habitat Needs…”
Habitat
Needs/Ecology/Life History
- Information
on LCTH Habitat Requirements - Determine the limiting factors for LCTH, and why they are so
locally distributed (Arizona); Determine specific habitat preferences
of LCTH and whether this adequately represents a cohort of Mojave
shrub species (Nevada); Conduct structural analyses of
occupied/unoccupied habitat (BNA)
- More
Information on LCTH Natural History - Determine extent of geographic variation in nearly all aspects
of LCTH biology (especially reproductive effort, vocalizations, &
population densities (BNA); Studies of behavior at the nest, daily
time budgets over seasons, food and water requirements, thermal
properties of nest lining & effects on nestling growth patterns,
territory/home-range sizes (BNA); Song repertoire and species-specific
characteristics of song (BNA)
- Determine
LCTH physiological & behavioral response to high temperatures and
the effects of drought on LCTH prey base and populations (BNA)
Effects
of Human Development/Disturbance
- See
needs under “Monitoring”
Species
Interactions
- Study
LCTH interactions with congenerics (BNA)
- see
needs in "Habitat Needs …"
Habitat
Restoration
- Determine
if LCTH will respond positively to rehabilitated farmland (
Arizona
); Studies of habitat restoration (BNA)
[Link
to References]
[Link
to PIF Bird Conservation Plans]
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