It has pale grey upperparts and white underparts. The adult female is brown on the upperparts and lighter brown on the underparts. Its upperparts and breast are pale gray, and the rest of the underparts are white. The juvenile is browner and has a paler rufous face and whiter underparts. It has a rufous brown back and pale buffy brown underparts. Males in nonbreeding plumage have largely white underparts, supercilium, and cheeks. Female are rufous on the back with a greyish throat and underparts. The plumage is blackish-brown above, paler on the underparts. Many subspecies have darker, often brownish, streaks, and paler underparts or limbs. The females have much paler plumage especially on the neck and underparts. They have either rusty or dark gray intricately patterned plumage with streaking on the underparts. All have either brown or dark gray plumage with streaking on the underparts. The underparts, lower face, chin, and throat are also whitish. The underparts of all morphs are whitish in base colour. The brown thrasher is bright reddish-brown above with thin, dark streaks on its buffy underparts.