Species Spotlight: Eastern Towhee
Looks like: Male towhees have a black head, back, and breast with rust-colored sides and a white belly. Females have the same pattern, but are rich brown where the males are black.
Lives in: Forest edges, overgrown fields, and thickets. This bird needs dense shrub cover with plenty of leaf litter.
Food web: Towhees eat seeds, fruits, insects, spiders, centipedes, snails, and soft leaf and flower buds. They scratch at leaves with a backward hop, then dart after anything they’ve uncovered.
Threats: Loss of habitat due to overbrowsing by deer. Because towhees nest on the ground, eggs and chicks are vulnerable to predators. Brown-headed cowbirds sometimes lay their own eggs in nests, which crowd out towhee eggs and young.
Frequency: Common
Reproduction: Mating occurs in April shortly after arrival. Towhees build cupped nests on the ground from bark strips, twigs, dead leaves, leaf stems, grass, and hair. Eggs are cream-colored with brown spots. Chicks hatch in less than 2 weeks and then fledge about 10 days later.
Fun facts: Eastern towhees prefer to be left alone, and they’re not afraid to show it. Threat displays to tell other towhees they’re not welcome include lifting, spreading, or drooping wings, fanning or flicking tails. Research shows that male towhees defend territories much larger than what they need to secure food and nesting areas.
The classic Towhee song sounds like “Drink Your Tea.”
