In fact, for a time, it was appropriately known as the “red-eyed towhee,” before the taxonomists split it into our western “spotted towhee” and its close relative the “eastern towhee.” ...

A male spotted towhee has a black head, back and tail with a white belly, orange-red sides and multiple white wing marks. “I think that the first thing people notice is their sides,” David ...

a battered Red Sox cap on his head and a pair of binoculars dangling from his neck, when he stopped suddenly and pointed to the distance. “There’s an Eastern towhee calling its name,” he ...

Though it doesn't boast fancy plumage, the grayish-brown, sparrow-like Inyo California towhee is remarkable for its tenacity. Despite the population's limited range and complete isolation from other ...

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 ...

The rufous-sided towhee, with its striking plumage, is a somewhat secretive member of the finch family that flits from beneath vegetation to visit feeders or scratch around in garden litter.

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 ...

“Erythro” is the Greek word for “red,” and “phthalm” is the Greek word for “the eye.” Put them all together and we learn that the eastern towhee is also known as the “red-eyed ...

Pipilo means to chirp and erythrophthalmus, red-eyed. A red-eyed chirper. Hence the English name, red-eyed towhee. In 1843, in "The Birds of Long Island" by J.P. Giraud, Jr., the entry for the eastern ...