Like a barnyard chicken or a miniature wild turkey, the little black bird scraped away at the leaves, using one foot at a time to reveal a seed or bug on the woodland floor, then employing both feet ...

Often missed by birders, particularly those of us who hear poorly, is one of our most attractive species — the eastern towhee. Until 1995, it was called the rufous-sided towhee, a very descriptive ...

Claim to fame: When males are in bright courtship plumage in spring, the Eastern towhee is one of the more interestingly marked birds you’ll see at forest edges and in old overgrown fields throughout ...

Characteristics: A sparrow-sized bird, this towhee has a black head, red eye and the males have a black back with white spots, hence the common name. Females are browner instead of black. The ...

From forest edges and thickets on late spring mornings in the Northeast comes what sounds like an exhortation from across the pond: “drink-your-tea!” This is not a British parent’s plea, but rather ...

A selection of bird essays by renowned ornithologist and artist George Miksch Sutton (1898-1982), founder of the Avian Research Center in Norman, Okla., was posthumously published in 1986 as “Birds ...

The rufous-sided towhee, with its striking plumage, is a somewhat secretive member of the finch family that flits from beneath vegetation to visit feeders or scratch around in garden litter.

Last year I told you about a Baltimore oriole that was scratching on the ground under my birdfeeder. At the time you seemed skeptical saying, “It doesn’t sound like oriole behavior.” Well, the bird is ...

One of my favorite spring arrival birds, an eastern towhee, showed up in the back yard last week. I’m especially fond of this member of the sparrow family as its cheery song that sounds like “drink ...

The Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) is an infrequent visitor to backyard bird feeders. Consider yourself lucky to see this large sparrow, with distinctive plumage, feeding on the ground ...