Green-tailed Towhee

One of North America’s most memorable birds, the Green-tailed Towhee stands out from other Towhees on the account of their beautiful plumages. Despite being so iconic and abundant throughout their range, these birds are also one of North America’s least well-known birds. They are highly elusive and are very quick to depart from any situation that startles them. They hide among shrubby mountainsides and large sagebrush expanses, making use of the dense foliage to stay out of sight. Even if you happen to catch a glimpse of them, it will be for less than a second as they pop into view and whistle out a song.

About Green-tailed Towhees

These birds are known for their catlike mew calls, a characteristic tune that has a quivering quality. They are fairly common in the western mountains during the summer, where they spend most of their time in dense low thickets to efficiently forage on the ground. Much like other Towhees, they scratch for leaf litter with both their feet as they search for food. Sometimes, they wander east during the seasons of fall, with stray vagrants showing up at feeders as far as the Atlantic Coast.

They are unique and adapt to curious situations. Some studies have suggested that as female towhees slip off the nest and run along the ground in the event of a predator approaching, they mimic the movements of a chipmunk in order to distract the threat. This, among many other characteristics, is what makes these birds so special. Today, we want to be talking about:

● Green-tailed Towhee Photos, Color Pattern, Song
● Green-tailed Towhee Size, Eating Behavior, Habitat
● Green-tailed Towhee Range and Migration, Nesting

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Green-tailed Towhee Color Pattern

Adult Green-tailed Towhees have olive-green upperparts, a gray breast, a long greenish tail, and a distinctly vivid reddish-brown cap. They have white supraloral spots and a slim submoustachial stripe, features that bring out their white chin, throat, and belly all the more. These features strongly contrast with the gray on their head and breast. Adults of both sexes look identical to each other, but the females are slightly duller in comparison to males. Their
irises are a warm, reddish cinnamon tone.

Juveniles look significantly different, being mainly brownish-gray above and white below, also being heavily streaked with black throughout their bodies. They have two olive wing bars that contrast with the rest of their bodies. The irises of juveniles are brown, similar to those of adults but significantly duller.

Description and Identification

Green-tailed Towhees can be secretive and hard to see. They live among low shrubs, so one of the best ways to find them is to visit a shrubby mountainside or sage flat during spring or early summer. Males will spend long periods perched at the tops of shrubs and singing. Their bright reddish-brown crowns that are often peaked up into a short crest, are quite conspicuous, and the yellow-green wings and tail are also distinctive. Their thin and ascending mewling calls can also help one in locating them.

Green-tailed Towhee Song

These birds have an array of vocalizations apart from their distinctive mewing calls. Their song has been described to be a series of clear, whistled notes that are preceded by a drawn-out “wheet-chur”, before ending with a raspy trill. Sometimes, they sing at night. Their “mew” call is an ascending catlike “meeoow”, which is sung during the breeding seasons. Females give it out while leaving the nest during incubation, or while foraging along or with their mate. Males utter the “mew” call while foraging on the ground but may also occasionally slide it in between songs. Their other calls include an alarm call, the tick call. It sounds like a tick and is given by both parents when intruders are near the nesting region. The “poitt” call is used in nest defense by both sexes but can also be used as a precopulatory and copulatory call. Their other call is the “tseeeeee” call. It is a high-pitched and thin “tseeee” that is usually burry in quality and longer in duration than the other calls. Rattle calls are given by females soliciting courtship, through a series of rapidly uttered, sharp tuck notes. The final call is a collection of “skee skee skee” and “tst tst tst” calls, with different variations of the same note. These calls may have the same notes varying, but they are always in a short series. Mew calls and “poitt” calls generally precede these calls. The function of this is presumably in the solicitation of mating by females, but it has also been observed to be used by females before incubation and by unmated females at the peak of the breeding season.

Green-tailed Towhee Size

These birds are small but chunky songbirds with a big head, stocky body, and a medium to long tail. Their bill is thick and Sparrow-like, having a conical shape that is perfect for feeding on seeds. They are larger than most Sparrows but have shorter tails than most other Towhees. Green-tailed Towhees measure about 7.25 inches and weigh approximately 1 ounce. They are larger than most Song Sparrows but are smaller than American Robins.

Green-tailed Towhee Behavior

Green-tailed Towhees forage on the ground or within dense shrubby foliage. They can be hard to see except for when males sing from the top of a shrub. Green-tailed Towhees forage on the ground or in low, dense shrubs. Males begin to sing and defend territories soon after they arrive back on their breeding grounds. They chase off other males as well as
Fox Sparrows, which share their habitat. To show aggression, males hop about or make low flights, sing, puff out their feathers, raise their crest, and shake their wings.

Green-tailed Towhees are monogamous, although there may be some mating outside the pair bond. Males court females by offering a piece of nesting material, bowing, drooping their wings, and pointing their tail straight up. In winter, they associate in small groups and with wintering Sparrows such as Brewer’s, Chipping, Black-throated, and White-crowned, as well as Spotted Towhee and Pyrrhuloxia. Their predators include many Hawks and Falcons, from American Kestrels to Northern Goshawks, as well as Long-eared Owls. Nest predators include Jays, Magpies, squirrels, weasels, chipmunks, skunks, and gopher snakes.

Green-tailed Towhee Diet

Green-tailed Towhees eat seeds and small insects. They forage on the ground, often using the “double-scratch” technique common to many ground-dwelling Sparrows and Towhees. This involves hopping forward and quickly backward again, scratching, and overturning the leaf litter with both feet at the same time. As the bird lands, it quickly pecks at any food it has uncovered. Food items include pigweed, filaree, dandelion, and ricegrass seeds, berries such as serviceberry, elderberry, and raspberry, and beetles, bees, wasps, caterpillars, moths, grasshoppers, bugs, and flies.

Green-tailed Towhee Habitat

Green-tailed Towhees live in dense, shrubby habitats, sometimes with scattered trees or cacti. They usually do not live in the unbroken forests but may occur in the open pinyon-juniper forest or, at high elevations, amid scattered small conifers. The shrubby regrowth that appears 8–15 years after forest fires provides good towhee habitat. Some kinds of logging may produce similar dense, shrubby regrowth suitable for Towhees. They also live in sagebrush shrubsteppe, often intermixed with shrubs and trees such as chokecherry, mountain mahogany, juniper, snowberry, and serviceberry. They may occur up to about 10,000 feet elevation. In winter they move to dry washes, arroyos, mesquite thickets, oak-juniper woodland, creosote bush, and desert grasslands, typically below about 4,000 feet elevation.

Range and Migration

These birds breed throughout the western half of the United States, ranging from California to Arizona. Migration seasons take these short to medium-distance migrants towards the warmer regions of the southwestern United States, and most of Mexico. Their wintering range generally ends at the very beginning of Central America. A small portion of the population that lives around Arizona and California are also permanent residents of their breeding habitats and do not migrate. However, this portion makes up for a very small part of their overall numbers.

Green-tailed Towhee Lifecycle

Green-tailed Towhees can have between 1–2 broods in a year, with each brood having a clutch size of 2–5 white eggs. Incubation is most likely done by the females and generally lasts for 11–13 days. If the mother senses any danger, she slides down to the ground and scurries away like a rodent with hopes of distracting the potential predator. Once the eggs hatch, the baby chicks emerge naked with their eyes closed and are generally completely helpless in the initial phases. The young ones are fed by both parents. The chicks are capable of leaving the nest after 11–14 days following hatching.

Nesting

Green-tailed Towhees conceal their nests at about knee height in very dense vegetation, in the low branches of sagebrush, snowberry, chokecherry, raspberry, juniper, oak, and other shrubs and small trees.

Females do all the nest building, taking 2–5 days to build a deep cup of twigs, plant stems, and bark, before lining the interiors with grasses, fine stems, rootlets, and hair, sometimes from horses, cows, and porcupines. The finished nest is about 6 inches across and 3 inches tall, with a cup that is about 2.5 inches across and 1.5 inches deep.

Anatomy of a Green-tailed Towhee

These birds are small but chunky songbirds with a big head, stocky body, and a medium to long tail. Their bill is thick and Sparrow-like, having a conical shape that is perfect for feeding on seeds. They are larger than most Sparrows but have shorter tails than most other Towhees. Green-tailed Towhees measure about 7.25 inches and weigh approximately 1 ounce. They are larger than most Song Sparrows but are smaller than American Robins.

Final Thoughts

Green-tailed Towhees are fairly common and despite some local decreases overall, their populations were stable from 1966 to 2014. As a result, these birds are considered to be of low conservational concern. These birds are sensitive to habitat degradation in the vast sagebrush shrubsteppes of the interior West, much of which has been altered by grazing, agriculture, and changed fire regimes. In mountain forests, Green-tailed Towhees benefit from the shrubby communities that come along after forest fires, making proper fire management important for this and many other species.

These birds are as beautiful as they are fascinating. Many aspects of their lives are still not fully understood, but they continue to give science numerous insights into the behaviors of these passerine birds. Every unusual trait that we learn about them amounts to a more holistic understanding of the avian world, constantly making room for new questions and new ways of approaching the subject matter. Catching a glimpse of these notoriously secretive birds is also one of the finest treats in life. Regardless of their beautiful appearances, their unique traits are what make these birds so special.

Ornithology

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Bird Watching Binoculars for IdentifyingGreen-tailed Towhees

The most common types of bird watching binoculars for viewing Green-tailed 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.

Green-tailed Towhee Stickers

Stickers are a great way for you to display your love for bird watching and the Green-tailed 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 ForGreen-tailed 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 ForGreen-tailed 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.