SPOTTED TOWHEE
Pipilo maculatus
Order:  Passeriformes

Family:  Emberizidae

 Alpha code:  SPTO                       AOU#:  588.0

Band sizes:  1A - 2
     Spotted Towhees are common birds in the Santa Monica Mountains.  It is the second most common bird that we encounter at the Zuma Canyon bird banding station.  Spotted Towhees are found over most of western North America in Upper Sonoran scrub habitat or that seral stage.  In southern California, it is found in lowland habitats along the coast but are found at mid-elevations in the interior.  In the interior West, towhees migrate altitudinally or latitudinally, but along the coast the birds are premanent residents.

   This bird along with the Eastern Towhee was once called Rufous-sided Towhee.  The Spotted Towhee has a series of white spots on the back and scapulars along with white tips on the median and greater coverts forming white wing bars.  There is a fair amount of variability with 11 subspecies in two groups.  Our is in the Coastal Group, Pipilo maculatus megalonyx.

     Spotted Towhees are large Embirizid sparrows about 19 cm long and weighing 35-45 g.  The back is black (or grayish black in females) along with a junco-like hood.  The central breast and belly are white, but the sides are rufous in color, hence its old name.

It is somewhat surprising how many of these birds we encounter, as we do not see or hear many of them in the chaparral except during the breeding season.  The dense broadleaf scrub habitat they prefer throughout their range makes them difficult to see.  However, their "chip" call and "trill" song are fairly easy to recognize.  

One axiom in ecology is the Competitive Exclusion Principle, which states that no two species can occupy the same niche.  Yet a common congeneric to the Spotted Towhee in the chaparral is the California Towhee, Pipilo fuscus, the fifth most common bird we encounter in Zuma Canyon.  Both birds work the ground litter, but the Spotted Towhee seems to be found more often on top of the shrubbery and has been reported to flycatch.  I suspect this is the reason we occasionally find an injured Spotted Towhee in the nest chased  there by a Sharp-shinned or Cooper's Hawk..  The only time I see CA Towhees on top of shrubbery is during breeding season when males are defending territories and singing.  

Bird Banding:  Although the first band listed for this bird is 1A, it is wise to use a leg gauge as a 2 band is often necessary even at the same station.  In the Santa Monica Mountains, we find some birds needing a 2, while others are fine with an 1A. AHY/ASY males are a nice glossy black with AHY/ASY females a dark grayish brown to blackish, and HY/SY males are blackish to black with HY/SY females a grayish brown to dull blackish gray.  These distinctions are not clear cut 

 with a single bird in the hand.  A help is that AHY/ASY birds have bright red irises, and HY/SY birds have gray-brown to dull red irises.  Molt limits are sometimes helpful, if one is familiar with using this characteristic.  Rectrices shape are often unhelpful as they get tattered in the chaparral vegetation.  The amount of white on the 4th rectrices to age and sex the bird is no longer valid.

     Some banding stations consider towhees to be sensitive bird which are easily stressed, but I have not noticed this problem.  We do, however, make every effort to return all towhees close to the net they were captured, the dogma being they are relatively poor flyers that rarely stray from their territories and thus have difficulty finding their way back to their territory.

Below is an adult male.  Note shiny black head and bright red eye

Below is an adult female.  Note dull blackish head and bright red eye.

Below is a Juv/HY bird.  Note dark streaking to underparts and hints of buffy to brown upperparts.  A hint of a gape is present.  White edging to wing covs are absent.