Take a better look, and you’ll see a white belly and a black hood that covers the head and shoulders. However, all share the same spotted wings, backs, and long, dark tails with conspicuous white corners. The spotted towhee is between 17 cm (6.7 in) and 21 cm (8.3 in) long, and weighs in at between 33 g (1.2 oz) and 49 g (1.7 oz). The spotted towhee (Pipilo maculatus) is a large New World sparrow.The taxonomy of the towhees has been debated in recent decades, and until 1995 this bird and the eastern towhee were considered a single species, the rufous-sided towhee.Literature before 1995 referred to the spotted towhee as a rufous-sided towhee that resides in the western United States. [“Mew” of Spotted Towhee] Sometimes called “not-a-robin”, the towhee can look like a robin at first glance, with a dark back and brick-red sides. The form that breeds on Socorro Island is much smaller than other rufous-sided towhees, and has gray upperparts. At least two broods, consisting of three to five eggs, are laid per season. The spotted towhee (Pipilo maculatus) is a large New World sparrow. Although the Spotted Towhee retained this name after the species split, its call is actually more of a cat-like mew, reminiscent of a Gray Catbird. They nest either on the ground or low in bushes, seldom more than 1.5 m (4.9 ft) above the ground[12] and most nests are around 40 cm (1.3 ft) above the ground. It is sometimes split as the Socorro towhee (Pipilo socorroensis). ... A - Z. App. The word “towhee” mimics the loud whistle of the Eastern Towhee. The Spotted Towhee forages mostly on the ground, and even builds its nest on the ground, or close to it. This is why a group of towhees is referred to as a “teapot.” Another nickname for a group of towhees, a “tangle,” is a nod to the bird’s preferred habitat of thick shrubbery. California towhee. [11] They migrate to northern and northwestern United States and southwestern Canada to breed in scrubland, parks and suburban gardens. Kelly Colgan Azar. Although the Spotted Towhee retained this name after the species split, its call is actually more of a cat-like mew, reminiscent of a Gray Catbird. What they eat: Spotted Towhees eat both insects and plants depending on the season.They prefer sunflower seeds, peanut hearts, and millet on the ground or in platform feeders. Chapter of the National Audubon Society • Kern County, California, SCIENTIFIC NAME: Pipilo maculatusPOPULATION: 30 millionTREND: StableHABITAT: Forest edges, shrubs, thickets, brushy backyards, and parks, Ornithologist Edward Forbush commented in 1929: “[The Towhee] is a ground bird — an inhabitant of bushy land. The Spotted Towhee and the very similar Eastern Towhee used to be considered the same species, the Rufous-sided Towhee. In parts of central Mexico, Spotted Towhees also hybridize with another close relative, the endemic Collared Towhee. The two forms still occur together in the Great Plains, where they sometimes interbreed. Their breeding habitat is chaparral, thickets or shrubby areas across western North America. call / song. Northwestern birds migrate eastwards to the central plains of the United States, mostly the northwestern-central Great Plains. Their main predators in less developed areas are ground dwelling snakes because nests are built on the ground. Don DeBold. Other american sparrows, towhees and juncos. [13] The location for the nests is usually found in exposed areas, but conceal the nest as it is being built. It’s a Spotted Towhee. This species has been known to interbreed with the Collared Towhee in areas of southwestern Mexico where the ranges of the two species overlap. This bird interbreeds with the collared towhee where their ranges overlap in southwestern Mexico. In other areas, some birds may move to lower elevations in the winter. If that isn’t enough to keep the Spotted Towhee separate from the robin, then watch the way it feeds. However, the Spotted Towhee’s song sounds similar to the well-known “drink-your-tea” song of its eastern cousin. Although the Spotted Towhee remains common throughout its range, it is still subject to the same threats causing bird declines throughout the Americas: habitat loss, invasive species, collisions, and more. These birds forage on the ground or in low vegetation,[2][14] with a habit of noisily rummaging through dry leaves searching for food. The egg shells are grayish or creamy-white, sometimes with a tinge of green, with reddish brown spots that can form a wreath or cap. ### Call of Spotted Towhee and feeding sounds provided by: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Sarah Bartos Smith and Jon S. Greenlaw Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020 Text last updated July 2, 2015 [6] On the coast, it is much more common in the Coastal Douglas-fir present in Wyoming, Montana Idaho and British Columbia. [14], "Comparative Foraging Behavior of the Spotted and Brown Towhees", "Spotted Towhee Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology", "Breeding Birds in Riparian and Upland Dry Forests of the Cascade Range", "CHANGING FIRE REGIMES AND THE AVIFAUNA OF CALIFORNIA OAK WOODLANDS", "Variation in Top-Down Control of Avian Reproductive Success across a Fragmentation Gradient", "Distribution and Relative Abundance of Forest Birds in Relation to Burn Severity in Southeastern Arizona", 10.2193/0022-541x(2006)70[1005:daraof]2.0.co;2, "Short-Term Responses of Birds to Prescribed Fire in Fire-Suppressed Forests of California", "Spotted Towhee Population Dynamics in a Riparian Restoration Context", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spotted_towhee&oldid=982021376, Native birds of the Western United States, Fauna of the California chaparral and woodlands, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 5 October 2020, at 19:01. Look for them on the forest floor as they scratch through the leaf litter searching for seeds and insects. The towhee hops forward on two legs, inspecting dead leaves for insects. They only eat protein rich food in the breeding season, and in the fall and winter they focus on foraging for acorns, seeds oats and berries. [5] Because spotted towhees' habitat overlaps with areas of the United States that experience regular forest fires (Arizona, New Mexico, California), they tend to be found in unburned chaparral and avoid chaparral and forests which have been burned[7][8] due to lack of ground cover and minimal foraging ability. Large, striking sparrow. It is not found in arid climates and as a result does not reside in the Sonoran Desert, but resides in northern Arizona and the entirety of California except the southeast corner that borders Arizona. Its mewing call can be heard from the underbrush, as it scuffles in the leaf litter for food. A robin searches a lawn looking for worms, but a towhee prefers to forage on dirt under protective vegetation. Spotted Towhee, photo by Mick Thompson. The taxonomy of the towhees has been debated in recent decades, and until 1995 this bird and the eastern towhee were considered a single species, the rufous-sided towhee. [11] In developed areas and habitat near urban development their main predators are household cats. Eastern towhee. Spotted and Eastern Towhees regularly hybridize where their ranges meet, throughout the central Great Plains states. Nests are parasitized by cowbirds. Birds connect us with the joy and wonder of nature. Like other wide-ranging bird species such as the Dark-eyed Junco and Horned Lark, the Spotted Towhee can be quite variable in appearance. Learn more about the Spotted Towhee at Cornell's All About Birds. The eggs are slightly oblong, with their dimensions being 2 cm (0.79 in) to 2.6 cm (1.0 in) long and 1.7 cm (0.67 in) to 1.9 cm (0.75 in) wide.