Spotted Towhee at the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge

Photo by Mrs. Geotripper

The Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus) is actually a large sparrow that is relatively common across the American West and Canda, but is not often seen (at least by me) because it spends a lot of time in the underbrush. Many of my first pictures of the species have been mysterious red eyes looking out from among the leaves.

These pictures, which I think may be the best I've taken (Mrs. Geotripper took the lead picture above), were captured along the Souza Marsh Trail at the southeast corner of the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge. We had just had a close encounter with a beautiful coyote, and had almost gotten back to the car when we spotted the Spotted Towhee (you see what I did there?), and we froze. Fortunately it did too and didn't disappear into the thicket, so we both had a chance to get some decent shots.

There is a similar related species, the Eastern Towhee. The two groups overlap and sometimes hybridize in the Midwest, and were once even considered to be a single species. The populations were separated by glaciers during the Ice Ages and diverged, as they were living in different environments that required different traits to survive and thrive. The "spots" are unique to the western species, who live in drier environments.