Spotted Towhee: The bird with a “bunny hop”

Recently I heard a rattling song, coming from the ground under one of our bird feeders. Then I noticed a colorful bird about eight inches long. It was a striking bird with a black head, white spotted black wings, white wing bars, and a dark rusty colored body. It had a contrasting white breast and underparts and white was found along the sides of its tail. It had noticeable and distinctive red eyes. A female hopped up beside him and her color was duller, a dark brown instead of black, and her head was more grayish.

The pair was in a leafy spot at the edge of a wooded area. It was comical how they would, “bunny hop” to find food. It hops forward with both feet, dragging back the leaves to find seeds and insects underneath. This was an eating activity I have seen sparrows utilize. I consulted my Birds of Idaho field guide to research the specie of bird. The result of my findings was a Spotted Towhee pair. The pair of towhee continued to be busy feeding and the male would stop once in a while to sing. I noticed they would retreat from danger by walking back into the brush rather than flying away.

The Spotted Towhee forages mostly on the ground and frequently scratches in leaves on the forest floor. The Spotted Towhee also forages in shrubs and low trees. He eats mostly insects, seeds, and berries. The towhee diet varies with the season and sometimes eats many insects, especially in the summer, including beetles, caterpillars, moths, bugs, spiders, snails and centipedes. The towhee is also known to eat acorns, berries, and small fruits.

The Spotted Towhee usually has between two and six creamy white to very pale gray eggs with spots of brown and gray often concentrated at the larger end. Incubation by the female usually is about 12-14 days. Both parents feed the nestlings. Young leave the nest about 9-11 days after hatching, but may remain with parents for some time thereafter. The towhee usually has one or two broods per year and on rare occasion three broods.

The male defends the nesting territory by singing, often from a high perch. The nest site is on the ground under a shrub, or in low bushes, usually less than 5 feet above the ground. The nest built by the female is an open cup of grass, twigs, weeds, rootlets, strips of bark, lined with finer materials, sometimes including animal hair. Both Spotted Towhee parents feed the nestlings.

This spring if you hear a rustling in leaf litter on the bottom of the forest floor and you see a striking black headed bird with a long tail; if it has red eyes, does a “bunny hop” to find its food then it is probably a Spotted Towhee.