From forest edges and thickets on late spring mornings in the Northeast comes what sounds like an exhortation from across the pond: “drink-your-tea!” This is not a British parent’s plea, but rather ...
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 throughout ...
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How to Identify an Eastern Towhee

When you’re watching for this songbird, look out below. The Eastern towhee spends most of its time on the ground, whether ...
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 through ...
An eastern towhee is back on my property. I didn’t see it, but heard its distinctive song, “drink your tea.” Before we talk about this bird’s behavior, let’s discuss its family, the Emberizids.
Fire-red eyes burn in the dark. For a long time, you see nothing at all, your attention drawn only by a loud and suggestive rustling. But, you peer deeper into the tangled undergrowth, until an ...
One of my favorite spring arrival birds, an eastern towhee, showed up in the back yard last week. I’m especially fond of this member of the sparrow family as its cheery song that sounds like “drink ...
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 ...
NEWPORT — The Eastern Towhee is a sparrow that doesn’t look like a typical sparrow. With its ink-black hood and sepia sides, the male especially stands out in the landscape. But it’s getting harder to ...
My husband, Joe, grew up with birds, birders and birding, and in his words, "I had some of the best teachers in the world. I met, and was in the field with, Roger Tory Peterson (author and illustrator ...
The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, Vol. 131, No. 3 (September 2019), pp. 625-628 (4 pages) We present observations of breeding behaviors exhibited by a bilateral gynandromorph Eastern Towhee (Pipilo ...