Measurements
Both Sexes
- Length
- 6.7–8.3 in
17–21 cm - Wingspan
- 11 in
28 cm - Weight
- 1.2–1.7 oz
33–49 g
Relative Size
- About a third again bigger than a Song Sparrow and twice as heavy. Smaller than a robin.
Other Names
- Tohi tacheté (French)
- Chouís, Toquí de Socorro (Spanish)
Cool Facts
- Watch a Spotted Towhee feeding on the ground; you'll probably observe its two-footed, backwards-scratching hop. This "double-scratching" is used by a number of towhee and sparrow species to uncover the seeds and small invertebrates they feed on. One Spotted Towhee with an unusable, injured foot was observed hopping and scratching with one foot.
- The Spotted Towhee and the very similar Eastern Towhee used to be considered the same species, the Rufous-sided Towhee. The two forms still occur together in the Great Plains, where they sometimes interbreed. This is a common evolutionary pattern in North American birds – a holdover from when the great ice sheets split the continent down the middle, isolating birds into eastern and western populations that eventually became new species.
- Early in the breeding season, male Spotted Towhees spend their mornings singing their hearts out, trying to attract a mate. Male towhees have been recorded spending 70 percent to 90 percent of their mornings singing. Almost as soon as they attract a mate, their attention shifts to other things, and they spend only about 5 percent of their time singing.
- Spotted Towhees live in drier habitats than Eastern Towhees. Some scientists have suggested that the bold white spots on Spotted Towhees’ backs help them blend in to the sun-dappled undergrowth.
- The oldest recorded Spotted Towhee was 10 years 8 months old.
Habitat
Scrub
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.
Food
Omnivore
In the breeding season, Spotted Towhees eat mainly insects including ground beetles, weevils, ladybugs, darkling beetles, click beetles, wood-boring beetles, crickets, grasshoppers, caterpillars, moths, bees, and wasps. Other leaf-litter arthropods such as millipedes, sowbugs, and spiders are taken as well. They also eat acorns, berries, and seeds including buckwheat, thistle, raspberry, blackberry, poison oak, sumac, nightshade, chickweed, and crops such as oats, wheat, corn, and cherries. In fall and winter, these plant foods make up the majority of their diet.
Nesting
Nesting Facts
- Clutch Size
- 2–6 eggs
- Number of Broods
- 1-3 broods
- Egg Length
- 0.8–1 in
2–2.6 cm - Egg Width
- 0.7–0.7 in
1.7–1.9 cm - Incubation Period
- 12–13 days
- Nestling Period
- 10–12 days
- Egg Description
- White, gray, green, or pinkish, spotted with reddish brown, purple or gray.
- Condition at Hatching
- Naked except for sparse tufts of grayish down, eyes closed, clumsy.
Nest Description
The female builds the nest beginning with a framework of dry leaves, stems, and bark strips. She lines this with an inner cup of fine, dry materials such as grasses, rootlets, pine needles, and hair. The finished nest is about 4.5 inches across, with an inner cup 2.5-4 inches across and about 2.5 inches deep. Ground nests are built into depressions so that the nest rim is at the soil surface or only slightly above it.
Nest Placement
Ground
Spotted Towhees place their nests either on the ground or near it (though occasionally up to 12 feet high). They often choose fairly exposed areas over sites deep inside a thicket, but within these areas they find a clump of grass, a log, or the base of a shrub to conceal their nests against.
Behavior
Ground Forager
Spotted Towhees rummage in the leaf litter or creep through thick shrubs. Towhees tend to hop wherever they go, moving deliberately and giving themselves plenty of time to spot food items. They scratch at leaves with a characteristic two-footed backward hop, then pounce on anything they’ve uncovered. During conflicts between two towhees, you may see one bird pick up a piece of twig, bark, or leaf and carry it around. This seems to be an indication of submission. Disturbed or alarm-calling towhees flick their wings while perched, sometimes flashing the white corners in the tail.
Conservation
Least Concern
Widespread and abundant, increasing in some areas as development creates more of their shrubby, open habitat, despite their vulnerability to predation by cats. Forms on a few islands off California and Mexico may be affected by habitat loss or overgrazing.
Credits
- Dunne, P. 2006. Pete Dunne’s essential field guide companion. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.
- Ehrlich, P. R., D. S. Dobkin, and D. Wheye. 1988. The birder’s handbook. Simon & Schuster Inc., New York.
- Greenlaw, Jon S. 1996. Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online
- Patuxent Wildlife Research Center Longevity Records
Migration
Resident or short-distance migrant.
Backyard Tips
Spotted 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. If you want to attract towhees to your feeders, consider sprinkling some seed on the ground, as this is where towhees prefer to feed.
Find This Bird
You can find Spotted Towhee by walking slowly along the edges of forests, thickets, and overgrown fields. Listen for the Spotted Towhee’s whiny, cat-like mew call, its rapid song, or simply any rustling the bird makes in dry leaves. Look low in shrubs or along the ground in places with rich leaf litter and dense stems.
Get Involved
Keep track of the Spotted Towhees at your feeder with Project FeederWatch
Explore sounds and video of Spotted Towhees from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Macaulay Library archive
Enhance your yard for towhees and other birds. Visit our web pages on attracting birds.
Learn more about bird photography in our Building Skills section. Then contribute your images to the Birdshare flickr site, which helps supply All About Birds and our other websites with photos.