Annual Variation in Habitat Selection of LeConte’s Thrasher

Surveys of Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument near Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2021, after an exceptionally dry winter, revealed LeConte’s Thrasher (Toxostoma lecontei) only in uniform stands of Atriplex polycarpa on flat terrain. But in 2022, after a winter of rainfall 2.7 times greater than average, several LeConte’s Thrashers, including at least one nesting pair, appeared in Mojave Desert scrub on a rockier substrate and more sloped terrain, in an area where they had been absent the previous year. Thus habitat use by LeConte’s Thrasher may vary in response to annual fluctuation in rainfall.