Bird Directory

Rufous-sided Towhee

Bird Name: Rufous-sided Towhee

Field Marks: This bird is smaller than a robin and has red eyes. The male has a black head and white panels on its wings and tip of its tail. The female is brown on top with white below and has chestnut flanks.

Feeder Food: Mixed seeds, fruit, nuts, suet

Natural Food: Insects, insect larvae, spiders, seeds, berries

Behavior: This bird lives in scrub, thickets, woodland edges and clearings. You will see it scratch and kick with both feet together in dry leaves to get its meal of insects. Its tail is always moving. You will usually see this bird alone except in the winter when you may see several around your feeder.

Song: tow-whee

Pictures were reproduced by permission.

Sources:

Alden, Peter and Brian Cassie, National Audubon Society Field Guide To New England, New York: Alfred A.Knopf, 1998.

Dawe, Neil and Karen, The Bird Book, New York: Workman Publishing, 1988.

Forbush, Edward Howe, Birds of Massachusetts, Norwood, Massachusetts: Norwood Press, 1929.

Reed, Chester R., Bird Guide: Land Birds East of the Rockies, Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1951.

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