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Spotted Towhee

Pipilo maculatus

Photo by CynthiaMHori
Published on Project Noah
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37.2899, -113.049

Field Notes

Description:

The Spotted Towhee is a large, striking sparrow of sun-baked thickets of the West. When you catch sight of one, they’re gleaming black above (females are grayish), spotted and striped with brilliant white. Their warm rufous flanks match the dry leaves they spend their time hopping around in. The birds can be hard to see in the leaf litter, so your best chance for an unobstructed look at this handsome bird may be in the spring, when males climb into the shrub tops to sing their buzzy songs.

Habitat:

Spotted Towhees are birds of dry 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.

Notes:

I could hear the Towhee everywhere but they were hard to spot!

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Spotted for Missions

Photographed
PublishedApril 23, 2011

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