Spotted Towhee

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Spotted Towhee
Conservation status
Least Concern
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Emberizidae Genus: Pipilo Species: P. maculatus
Binomial name
Pipilo maculatus Swainson, 1827

The Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus) is a large sparrow. The taxonomy of the towhees has been debated in recent decades, and formerly this bird and the Eastern Towhee were considered a single species, the Rufous-sided Towhee.

Contents 1 Appearance 2 Behavior 3 References 4 External links 5 Further reading 5.1 Book 5.2 Thesis 5.3 Articles

[edit] Appearance

Adults have rufous sides, a white belly and a long dark tail with white edges. The eyes are red. They have white spots on their back and white wing bars. Males have a dark head, upper body and tail; these parts are brown or grey in the female.

[edit] Behavior

Northwestern birds migrate east to the central plains of the United States. In other areas, some birds may move to lower elevations in winter.

Their breeding habitat is chaparral, thickets or shrubby areas across western North America. This bird interbreeds with the Collared Towhee where their ranges overlap in southwestern Mexico.

They nest either on the ground or low in bushes, seldom more than 1.5 m above the ground. The female builds the nest over a period of about 5 days. It is bulky and sturdily made of leaves, strips of bark, twigs, forb stalks, and grasses, lined with pine needles, shredded bark, grasses, and sometimes hairs.

At least two broods, consisting of up to 5 eggs, are laid per season. The egg shells are greyish or creamy-white, sometimes with a tinge of green, with reddish brown spots that can form a wreath or cap. The female incubates the eggs alone for 12 to 13 days, the young leave the nest at 10 to 12 days. Nests are parasitized by cowbirds.

These birds forage on the ground or in low vegetation, with a habit of noisily rummaging through dry leaves searching for food. They mainly eat insects, acorns, seeds and berries.

The call may be harsher and more varied than for the Eastern Towhee.

[edit] References

• BirdLife International (2004). Pipilo maculatus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern

[edit] External links

• Spotted Towhee Species Account - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• Spotted Towhee Pipilo maculatus - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
• Spotted Towhee Information - South Dakota Birds and Birding

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Book

• Greenlaw, J. S. 1996. Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus). In The Birds of North America, No. 263 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists’ Union, Washington, D.C.

[edit] Thesis

• Bagne KE. Ph.D. (2006). The effects of prescribed burning in the spring on avian communities in the Sierra Nevada of California. University of California, Riverside, United States -- California.

• Khanna H. Ph.D. (2000). Signal design: Songs of two sister species of birds, the eastern towhee and the spotted towhee. The Ohio State University, United States -- Ohio.

• Smith GT. Ph.D. (1996). Seasonal plasticity in the avian song control system. University of Washington, United States -- Washington.

[edit] Articles

• Ball RM, Jr. & Avise JC. (1992). Mitochondrial DNA phylogeographic differentiation among avian populations and the evolutionary significance of subspecies. Auk. vol 109, no 3. p. 626-636.

• Berry ME & Bock CE. (1998). Effects of habitat and landscape characteristics on avian breeding distributions in Colorado foothills shrub. Southw Natural. vol 43, no 4. p. 453-461.

• Bulluck L, Fleishman E, Betrus C & Blair R. (2006). Spatial and temporal variations in species occurrence rate affect the accuracy of occurrence models. Global Ecology & Biogeography. vol 15, no 1. p. 27-38.

• Chambers CL & McComb WC. (1997). Effects of silvicultural treatments on wintering bird communities in the Oregon coast range. Northwest Science. vol 71, no 4. p. 298-304.

• Elekonich MM. (2000). Female song sparrow, Melospiza melodia, response to simulated conspecific and heterospecific intrusion across three seasons. Anim Behav. vol 59, p. 551-557.

• Erickson WR. (2004). Bird communities of the garry oak habitat in southwestern British Columbia. Can Field-Nat. vol 118, no 3. p. 376-385.

• Gardali T, Holmes AL, Small SL, Nur N, Geupel GR & Golet GH. (2006). Abundance patterns of landbirds in restored and remnant riparian forests on the Sacramento River, California, USA. Restoration Ecology. vol 14, no 3. p. 391-403.

• Gardali T & Nur N. (2006). Site-specific survival of Black-Headed Grosbeaks and spotted towhees at four sites within the Sacramento Valley, California. Wilson J Ornithol. vol 118, no 2. p. 178-186.

• Greenlaw JS & Engstrom RT. (2001). First record of Spotted Towhee in Florida. Florida Field Naturalist. vol 29, no 1. p. 26-28.

• Odell EA & Knight RL. (2001). Songbird and medium-sized mammal communities associated with exurban development in Pitkin County, Colorado. Conservation Biology. vol 15, no 4. p. 1143-1150.

• Patten MA & Bolger DT. (2003). Variation in top-down control of avian reproductive success across a fragmentation gradient. Oikos. vol 101, no 3. p. 479-488.

• Silkey M, Nur N & Geupel GR. (1999). The use of mist-net capture rates to monitor annual variation in abundance: A validation study. Condor. vol 101, no 2. p. 288-298.

• Small SL. (2005). Mortality factors and predators of spotted Towhee nests in the Sacramento Valley, California. J Field Ornithol. vol 76, no 3. p. 252-258.

• Sopuck L, Ovaska K & Whittington B. (2002). Responses of songbirds to aerial spraying of the microbial insecticide Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki (Foray 48B (R)) on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Environ Toxicol Chem. vol 21, no 8. p. 1664-1672.

• Turley NJS & Holthuijzen AMA. (2005). Impact of a catastrophic flooding event on riparian birds. Western North American Naturalist. vol 65, no 2. p. 274-277.

• Verner J, Breese D & Purcell KL. (2000). Return rates of banded granivores in relation to band color and number of bands worn. J Field Ornithol. vol 71, no 1. p. 117-125.

• Waldien DL, Cooley MM, Weikel J, Hayes JP, Maguire CC, Manning T & Maier TJ. (2004). Incidental captures of birds in small-mammal traps: a cautionary note for interdisciplinary studies. Wildl Soc Bull. vol 32, no 4. p. 1260-1268.

• Zink RM, Weller SJ & Blackwell RC. (1998). Molecular phylogenetics of the avian genus Pipilo and a biogeographic argument for taxonomic uncertainty. Molecular Phylogenetics & Evolution. vol 10, no 2. p. 191-201.