Distinctive markings: Male has a black head, back and tail with white belly, orange-red sides and red or white eyes. The female’s coloring has a browner cast. A flurry of flying leaves and ...

Claim to fame: When males are in bright courtship plumage in spring, the Eastern towhee is one of the more interestingly marked birds you’ll see at forest edges and in old overgrown fields ...

Usually you’ll hear an Eastern Towhee before you see it. This common, colorful bird spends much of its time rustling around in the undergrowth, foraging noisily through leaf litter or creeping ...

The Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) is an infrequent visitor to backyard bird feeders. Consider yourself lucky to see this large sparrow, with distinctive plumage, feeding on the ground ...

Often missed by birders, particularly those of us who hear poorly, is one of our most attractive species — the eastern towhee. Until 1995, it was called the rufous-sided towhee, a very ...