Abert’s Towhee

The Abert’s Towhee is a dusky brown bird that you can find throughout the greener regions of the Sonoran Desert. Unlike many other Towhees, these heavy birds are more secretive than the other members of their family. However, you can spot these birds easily if one knows where to search. They can be fiercely aggressive in defending their territories, which are often located right under the noses of human beings in suburban areas.

About Abert’s Towhees

They are ground foragers in every sense and most commonly live within thick bushes, shrubs, and thickets, often hidden from plain sight. However, their songs permeate through the dense vegetation they surround themselves, traveling throughout their territories and quite easily giving their locations away. They do not migrate and instead choose to remain within their habitats of cottonwood-willow forests throughout the year.

These birds are closely related to Canyon Towhees and California Towhees, but they inhabit different regions throughout the United States. They share many traits with their cousins, but you can distinguish them from their cousins fairly easily if one keeps their unique features in mind. Today, we want to be delving deep into the stories of these birds and what makes them special. We will be discussing:

● Abert’s Towhee Photos, Color Pattern, Song
● Abert’s Towhee Size, Eating Behavior, Habitat
● Abert’s Towhee Range and Migration, Nesting

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Abert’s Towhee Color Pattern

Abert’s Towhees have grayish-brown upperparts that often look very dusky, with their crown and back donning a uniform gray gradient all the way up till the end of the tail. Their underparts are pinkish-brown, with their breast, flanks, and belly tinged with rusty shades. These shades are further highlighted by an intense black that is found at the very edges of their tail, chin, lores, and the portion that surrounds their pale bill. These birds do not exhibit sexual dimorphism, with adults of both sexes looking identical to each other in plumage.

Juveniles look similar to adults but have a drab brown forehead, crown, sides of the head, and nape. Their rump and upper tail coverts look similar and have a tinge of rusty hues. Their chin, throat, chest, sides, and belly are similarly a light, buffy brown color, making them more uniformly colored than their adult counterparts. They have a dusky mustache that marks the sides of their chin, before eventually turning into the black marks that are characteristic
of adults. There is a band of coarse and obscure black spots that stretches across the breast while giving it a faintly streaked appearance, but their bodies are otherwise rather uniformly rusty.

Description and Identification

Spotting Abert’s Towhees is rather difficult during the day, primarily due to their preference of laying low below the dense undergrowth and of flying very little during the daylight hours. They rarely perch in trees, with singing males typically vocalizing in brushes or the lower parts of trees. Their songs are relatively distinct and you can hear them frequently during the breeding seasons. Their vocalizations are sharp and piercing, penetrating through the dense vegetation and enveloping their surrounding territories with their calls. Once heard, observers can trace it back to their source and scrutinize brushes for flashes of rusty movements.

Abert’s Towhee Song

These birds have rather simple songs compared to other passerine birds. They have a good array of songs, with most communication between birds taking place in the form of duets. Their most conspicuous vocalization is the squeal duet, most frequently heard between a pair during the breeding season. It is a series of individual notes that resemble “sleep, sleep, cha, cha, cha”, a piercing locative call that is followed by a harsh chatter. Their other songs include a series of sharp peep sounds by territorial males to attract mates. It is fairly consistent in structure and is males who have already mated don’t use it.

Males who have a mate sing a sharp peep call. Other renderings of this call can sound like “chirp, chuck, or huit”. Both sexes give out a high-pitch, thin, and sharp seep that has a slight tremolo effect. They give out this call to keep in contact with their mate while they are hiding in the bushes. Juveniles have not been observed singing, although songs have been found in the juveniles of California and Canyon Towhees.

Abert’s Towhee Size

Abert’s Towhees are large Sparrows that are around 8.3-9.1 inches in length. They have elongated bodies that give them a slightly elliptical appearance. Their bills are short and conical, while their tails are rather long for a Sparrow. They are typically the size of a Robin and weigh about 10.4-11.6 ounces. Generally the males are slightly heavier than this. Their wings are pointed and have a wingspan of 10.4-11.6 inches. These proportions make Abert’s Towhees slightly larger than Northern Cardinals, but smaller than a Woodhouse Scrub-Jay.

Abert’s Towhee Behavior

Abert’s Towhees spend a majority of their time on the ground or within bushes. They may fly towards low tree branches but rarely go higher. Studies have shown that females spend less than 2% of their day in flight, while the number goes up to 3.5% per day in the case of males. They primarily locomote by hopping and running.

These birds are rather possessive of their territories. They frequently fight with other pairs or individuals at their territory boundaries, generally over things like water or food. When they are threatening their opponent, their feathers are ruffed out and their heads are retracted. They keep their wings and tail spread while uttering the squeal duet constantly. These behaviors are most frequently observed during the breeding seasons. Otherwise, they have are amicable with members of other species and may even forage side-by-side with Canyon Towhees in parts of their overlapping range.

Adult breeding pairs are generally monogamous and mate for life. They maintain their bonds but facing each other and performing squeal duets, a rapid series of harsh notes. Although the most frequent duet during the breeding seasons, they may still sing sometimes during the winter.

Abert’s Towhee Diet

Like other Towhees, Abert’s Towhees mainly feed on insects. They forage by rummaging through the ground within leaf litter or loose soil, kicking back with both of their feet simultaneously to uncover prey and seeds. Insects make up more than 95% of their diet during the breeding seasons, with beetles, ants, grasshoppers, cicadas, and caterpillars
being their most common prey. During the winter, they consume more seeds due to the dwindled insect populations, but more than half of their diet is still mainly comprised of insects. The little plant matter that they consume includes the seeds of grasses, salt brush, and some herb-like plants in the amaranth family.

Abert’s Towhee Habitat

You can find Abert’s Towhees mainly in cottonwood-willow riparian forests through the southwestern regions of the United States and northern Mexico. They prefer regions with dense understories of native shrubs and seem to favor mesquite woodlands called bosques along the Colorado River. Due to rapid habitat loss in recent years, they have begun using other riverside habitats like stands of invasive salt cedar. Urban cities in their range that have an abundance of exotic plantings mixed with native species have become common in areas with sufficient understories. They may also be found in agricultural areas that are lined heavily with quail bush.

Range and Migration

Abert’s Towhees have a small range that is from the southwest regions of the United States and some of the northwest areas in Mexico. Their traditional range has been restricted to regions around California and Arizona, but they have been observed to extend their range north towards Las Vegas and east towards the Chihuahua desert. These birds are permanent residents of their habitats and do not migrate, rarely ever wandering even short distances from their favored habitat.

Abert’s Towhee Lifecycle

Abert’s Towhees generally have 2 broods in a single breeding season. After mating, the females lay 1-4 pale blue or whitish eggs in a single brood. Incubation lasts for about 14 days and is completed only by the female. Nestlings are completely helpless upon hatching and are fed by both parents for over a month. The young ones are capable of
leaving the nest for around 12-13 days after hatching but are unable to fly until they are fully-grown.

Nesting

Nest sites are located in areas within dense vegetation, usually in shrubs, mesquite, cottonwood, or Mexican elderberry. Clumps of mistletoe are also a popular location for their nest sites in some parts of their range. These nests are located about 5-7 feet above the ground, but the height may vary from region to region. The height of the nest depends on the most on where the vegetation has adequate foliage to conceal and provide shade to the nest.

The nest itself is a bulky cup made of leaves and bark of mesquite, cottonwood, willow, leaves of salt cedar, saltbush, ink weed, arrow weed, and some other grasses. Both members of the pair build the nest. The nest they make is around 4 inches tall and 5.4 inches wide, and the inner cup is 3 inches across and 1.6 inches deep.

Anatomy of an Abert’s Towhee

Abert’s Towhees are large Sparrows when compared to other passerine birds. They have elongated bodies that give them a slightly elliptical appearance. Their bills are short and conical, while their tails are rather long for a Sparrow. They are typically Robin-sized and weigh about 10.4-11.6 ounces, with the males generally being very slightly heavier. Their wings are long and pointed. These proportions make Abert’s Towhees slightly larger than Northern Cardinals, but smaller than a Woodhouse Scrub-Jay.

Final Thoughts

The numbers of these intriguing birds have increased by an estimate of 20% every year since 1970. However, though it might seem that the populations have been doing well due to their relative increase in recent years. These birds were up to as much as 95% more abundant in the previous centuries, with much of their original habitats converted to
agricultural or urban areas. Due to their more or less adaptive nature, they have found new habitats within suburban habitats and invasive salt cedar stands.

These birds, like many other desert birds, are relatively easy to spot. If you ever want to spot them from a closer level than their preferred habitats of dense shrubs, it is doable even within your backyard. Simple keep several water features, plenty of native plants, clean feeding stations, and a sufficient amount of shrubbery. These feeding stations can not only attract Abert’s Towhees, but also a variety of Quail, Thrashers, Woodpeckers, Doves, and many kinds of Sparrows. Areas near cottonwoods and willows have the highest chances of hosting these species, with their sharp songs generally giving them away during the summers. So, head over to these places. Try to spot them, and maybe you will be treated to one of their signature duets!

Ornithology

Bird Watching Academy & Camp Subscription Boxes

At the Bird Watching Academy & Camp we help kids, youth, and adults get excited and involved in bird watching. We have several monthly subscription boxes that you can subscribe to. Our monthly subscription boxes help kids, youth, and adults learn about birds, bird watching, and bird conservation.

Bird Watching Binoculars for Identifying Abert’s Towhees

The most common types of bird watching binoculars for viewing Abert’s Towhees are 8×21 binoculars and 10×42 binoculars. Bird Watching Academy & Camp sells really nice 8×21 binoculars and 10×42 binoculars. You can view and purchase them here.

Abert’s Towhee Stickers

Stickers are a great way for you to display your love for bird watching and the Abert’s Towhee. We sell a monthly subscription sticker pack. The sticker packs have 12 bird stickers. These sticker packs will help your kids learn new birds every month.

Bird Feeders For Abert’s Towhees

There are many types of bird feeders. Bird feeders are a great addition to your backyard. Bird feeders will increase the chances of attracting birds drastically. Both kids and adults will have a great time watching birds eat at these bird feeders. There are a wide variety of bird feeders on the market and it is important to find the best fit for you and your backyard.

Bird Houses For Abert’s Towhees

There are many types of bird houses. Building a bird house is always fun but can be frustrating. Getting a bird house for kids to watch birds grow is always fun. If you spend a little extra money on bird houses, it will be well worth every penny and they’ll look great.