Green-tailed Towhee

The Green-tailed Towhee is a unique, large sparrow of the American West. Although it is a true towhee, its secretive behavior makes it more elusive than its bolder cousins, as it spends much of its time foraging deep within dense mountain brush and chaparral. Boasting a striking combination of a bright rufous cap, slate-gray breast, sharp white throat, and olive-green wings and tail, it is one of the most handsomely patterned sparrows in North America. First described during municipal boundary surveys in the mid-19th century, this species remains a classic signature bird of the brushy, sun-drenched mountain slopes of the Great Basin and Rocky Mountain regions.

Identifying a Green-tailed Towhee is straightforward once a clear view is obtained, thanks to several highly diagnostic field marks:

• Header & Crown: A vibrant chestnut or rufous crown, which the bird can raise into a short, bushy crest when agitated or alert.
• Face & Bill: The face is slate-gray, set off by a white spot above the bill and a clean white 'spectacle' around the eye.
• Throat: A striking, bright white throat patch that is sharply bordered by gray sides and dark malar stripes, forming a conspicuous 'bowtie' effect.
• Underparts: The breast and flanks are clean, solid gray, fading to pale white on the belly, with buffy undertail coverts.
• Upperparts: The back, wings, and tail are a bright, contrasting olive-green or yellowish-green, which glows brightly in direct sunlight.

Similar Species: The Green-tailed Towhee is highly distinctive. However, its ground-dwelling habits may recall the Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus), which is larger and has a solid black or dark brown hood without any olive-green or rufous crown. Fox Sparrows (Passerella iliaca) share similar montane brush habitats but are heavily streaked below and lack the clean gray breast, bold white throat patch, and green plumage.

During the breeding season, the Green-tailed Towhee is a bird of the interior mountain West, typically inhabiting altitudes between 1,000 and 3,000 meters (3,000 to 10,000 feet). They prefer dense, shrubby habitats, including montane chaparral, sagebrush flats, pinyon-juniper woodland edges, and areas of regenerating forest brush after fires.

Migration and Range:

• Breeding Range: Extends from eastern Oregon and southern Idaho, south through the Great Basin and Rocky Mountain states to southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and west Texas.
• Wintering Range: They migrate south to winter in the low-elevation desert scrub of the southwestern United States (especially Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas) and deep into mainland Mexico.
• Vagrancy: They occasionally wander to the eastern United States during autumn and winter migration, sometimes appearing at suburban bird feeders.

Like other towhees, the Green-tailed Towhee is primarily a ground-forager. It searches for food beneath the leaf litter of dense shrubs using a characteristic 'double-scratch' motion, hopping forward and then leaping backward to kick away debris with both feet simultaneously to reveal insects and seeds.

Vocalizations:

• Song: A lively, sweet series of short, buzzy notes, chips, and musical trills, often lasting 2 to 3 seconds. It can sound similar to a Fox Sparrow song but usually contains a distinctive buzzy phrase.
• Call: Extremely diagnostic. It is a soft, rising, kitten-like 'mew' or 'preee' sound that often betrays the bird's presence in dense cover long before it is seen.

Nesting and Breeding: Monogamous pairs build a well-concealed, bulky cup nest made of twigs, grass, and bark, lined with finer grasses and animal hair. The nest is typically placed close to or on the ground, buried deep within a dense shrub such as big sagebrush, snowberry, or bitterbrush. The female incubates a clutch of 3 to 4 pale blue-green, brown-speckled eggs.