Spotted Towhee

Pipilo maculatus

Description:

Spotted Towhees are a large, robin sized, sparrow with a thick bill and a long tail. The males have a black head, throat and upper parts with a white belly and rufous sides. The back and the wings are spotted white, and the eye is red with a black center. It measures 7-9 inches. (18-23 cm).

Voice:

Slurred cherwink, buzzy chweee or a nasal wheee; song “drink your tea,” with last note trilled. Song with a great deal of geographical variation.

Food:

Spotted Towhee are seed eaters, foraging dense ground litter; scratches brush vigorously for seeds, hopping from side to side, tail up.

Nest:

A loose cup built in a scratched depression on the ground or in dense brush, close to the ground. The nest is made of grasses and bark and lined with fine grass. 3-5 eggs, white with reddish-brown and lilac spots, are produced.

Habitat:

Spotted Towhees are birds of dry and streamside thickets, brushy tangles, forest edges, old fields, shrubby backyards, chaparral, coulees and canyon bottoms, places with dense shrub cover and plenty of leaf litter for the towhees to scratch around in.

Range:

The spotted towhee lives in dry upland forests and breeds across north-western North America. It is present in California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and southern British Columbia year round. It is not found in arid climates and as a result does not reside in the Sonoran Desert.

Migration:

From cold, northern tier to lowlands of southwestern states. In our mountains, the Spotted Towhee is primarily a year-round resident.

Comments:

Commonly seen around the picnic areas in Idyllwild and in Long Valley near the creek.

Photo Courtesy Tom Grey

3/19/21/ok