Spotted Towhee Drawings by Lucia Harrison Click to enlarge

Scientific Name:  Pipilo maculatus

 

Photo by Joshua Tree National Park
Photo by Becky Matsubara
Photo by Doug Greenberg
Click to Enlarge Images
Spotted Towhee, Photo by Marv Dreessen

Spotted Towhees like shrubby forest edges and backyards that offer plenty of leaf litter.  As ground birds, they eat insects in the leaf litter like beetles, bees, caterpillars, and grasshoppers.  They also eat acorns, seeds and berries like the currants found on Red Flowering Currant.  They nest on or near the ground in a shrub. 

For more information about, and photos, videos and sound recordings of Spotted Towhees go to Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds Website https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Spotted_Towhee/

Also visit the Audubon Society’s on-line field guide that includes climate change information on Spotted Towhees.  https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/spotted-towhee