Bendire's Thrasher is a medium-sized songbird; smaller than other sympatric, congeneric thrashers. Separable from other North American passerines, except thrashers, by combinations of the following characters: medium size; wings relatively short and rounded; 10 primaries; tarsi scutellate on anterior surface; bill acuminate, upper mandible not hooked over lower mandible, and culmen weakly decurved distally; coloration on crown, back, wings, and tail relatively uniform (i.e., lacks distinct spotting, streaking, barring, and wingbars, though feather edges may be lighter in fresh feathering); external nares not covered by feathers; and tail as long or longer than body.

References cited in Species Profile

• Ambrose, Jr., J. E. 1963. The breeding ecology of Toxostoma curvirostre and T. bendireiin the vicinity of Tucson, Arizona. Master's Thesis. Univ. Ariz., Tucson.
• Darling, J. L. 1970. New breeding records of Toxostoma curvirostre and T. bendirei in New Mexico. Condor 72:366-367.
• Engels, W. L. 1940. Structural adaptations in thrashers (Mimidae: Genus Toxostoma) with comments on interspecific relationships. Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool. 42:341-400.
• England, A. S. and W. F. Laudenslayer, Jr. 1993. Bendire's Thrasher (Toxostoma bendirei), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/071
• Robbins, C. S., D. Bystrak, and O. H. Geissler. 1986. The Breeding Bird Survey: Its first fifteen years, 1965-1979. U.S. Fish Wildl. Service Resour. Publ. 157.
• Shuford, W. D., and Gardali, T., editors. 2008. California Bird Species of Special Concern: A ranked assessment of species, subspecies, and distinct populations of birds of immediate conservation concern in California. Studies of Western Birds 1. Western Field Ornithologists, Camarillo, California, and California Department of Fish and Game, Sacramento.