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Eastern Towhee

Pipilo erythrophthalmus ORDER: PASSERIFORMES FAMILY: EMBERIZIDAE

IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern

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Eastern Towhee Photo

© PIWO

A strikingly marked, oversized sparrow of the East, feathered in bold black and warm reddish-browns – if you can get a clear look at it. Eastern Towhees are birds of the undergrowth, where their rummaging makes far more noise than you would expect for their size. Their chewink calls let you know how common they are, but many of your sightings end up mere glimpses through tangles of little stems.

Come watch nesting birds at Nestcams.org

Keys to identification Help

Sparrows
Sparrows
Typical Voice

  • Size & Shape

    Towhees are a kind of large sparrow. Look for their thick, triangular, seed-cracking bill as a tip-off they’re in the sparrow family. Also notice the chunky body and long, rounded tail.

  • Color Pattern

    Males are striking: bold sooty black above and on the breast, with warm rufous sides and white on the belly. Females have the same pattern, but are rich brown where the males are black.

  • Behavior

    Eastern Towhees spend most of their time on the ground, scratching at leaves using both feet at the same time, in a kind of backwards hop. They spend lots of time concealed beneath thick underbrush. You may see this bird more often when it climbs into shrubs and low trees to sing.

  • Habitat

    Look for Eastern Towhees in brush, tangles, thickets, and along forest edges where there’s plenty of leaf litter for the birds to forage in.

Range Map Help

Eastern Towhee Range Map
View dynamic map of eBird sightings

Field MarksHelp

  • Adult male
    PopOutZoom In
    Adult male
    • Black head, chest, back, wings, and tail
    • Dark, stout, conical bill
    • Rufous sides
    • White spot on middle of wing
    • © Jean Kuns
  • Adult female
    PopOutZoom In
    Adult female
    • Brown head, chest, back, wings and tail
    • Rufous sides
    • White belly
    • When foraging on ground, long tail often cocked upward
    • © CLO/GBBC
  • Adult male
    PopOutZoom In
    Adult male
    • Black hood and white belly
    • Rufous sides hidden by wings
    • Large white spots on underside of tail
    • When agitated, sometimes shows slight crest
    • © Gerry Dewaghe, North Carolina, May 2008
  • Immature male
    PopOutZoom In
    Immature male
    • Brown head and back, with black wings and tail
    • Buffy tips to wing feathers
    • Dark eye
    • Rufous on sides not very apparent
    • © WarblerEd Schneider , Whites Creek, Tennessee, September 2008
  • Adult male
    PopOutZoom In
    Adult male
    • White outer tail feathers
    • Long, rounded tail
    • Pale rufous undertail
    • White belly
    • © Birdfreak.com , Cherry Valley, Illinois, April 2008
  • Adult male
    PopOutZoom In
    Adult male
    • Black head, chest, back, wings, and tail
    • Dark, stout, conical bill
    • Rufous sides
    • White eye (red in other forms)
    • © Greg Bishop , Florida, October 2008
  • Adult female
    PopOutZoom In
    Adult female
    • Brown head, chest, back, wings and tail
    • Rufous sides
    • White belly and white spot in middle of wing
    • When foraging on ground, tail often cocked upward
    • © adf6879 , Virginia, April 2008

Similar Species

Similar Species

Spotted Towhees have striking white spots across the back and wing coverts. You might briefly confuse a female Eastern Towhee with an American Robin because of the warm reddish underparts and brown back, but towhees are more compact than robins, with a much shorter, thicker beak and white on the belly. Juvenile Eastern Towhees are pale brown and streaky, like many sparrows and female finches. The best way to identify them is by their characteristic size and shape: bigger than other sparrows, with longer, white-cornered tail.

Regional Differences

A subspecies in southern Georgia and Florida has a pale yellow eye instead of the red eye seen elsewhere in the East.

Backyard Tips

Eastern Towhees are likely to visit – or perhaps live in – your yard if you’ve got brushy, shrubby, or overgrown borders. If your feeders are near a vegetated edge, towhees may venture out to eat fallen seed.

Find This Bird

Walk slowly along the edges of forests, thickets, and old fields. Listen carefully for the Eastern Towhee’s scratchy chewink call, its bright song, or simply any rustling the bird makes in dry leaves. Then lower your eyes to ground level and scan the leaf litter, looking for a scratching towhee or the bright white corners of the bird flashing its tail at you.

Get Involved

Watch for Eastern Towhees foraging for fallen seeds under your bird feeders – then send us your observations as part of Project FeederWatch

Learn more about bird photography in our Building Skills section. Then contribute your images to the Birdshare flickr site, which helps supply the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's websites with photos, including All About Birds.

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Eastern Towhee from Bent's Life Histories of North American Birds (1968)

Find in-depth information on Eastern Towhees and other hundreds of other birds for as little as $5 in The Birds of North America Online from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and American Ornithologists' Union