H.J. Ruiz – Avian101 – Page 628 – "My Backyard Visitors" – All about birds

See the Towhee

Another bird that I consider to be extraordinary is the Eastern Towhee. They are birds that keep a low profile, are pacific and mind they own business as the folks say. These are birds that I’ve seen in my backyard since the beginning when I moved to Georgia.

The Eastern Towhee is a large and striking species of sparrow. Adults have rufous sides, a white belly, and a long dark tail with white edges. The eyes are red, white for birds in the southeast. Males have a black head, upper body, and tail; these parts are brown in the female. Juveniles are brown overall. Eastern Towhees of all ages and both sexes generally are unmistakable and are not known to co-exist with the similar western spotted towhee.

Eastern towhees primarily eat on the ground, although they also glean from vegetation. When foraging on the ground eastern towhees use a scratching technique where both feet kick back simultaneously.

Eastern towhees eat a variety of plant and animal matter. In literature reviews, eastern towhees are reported to eat seeds and fruits, several invertebrates, and occasionally small amphibians, snakes, and lizards. Reviews report eastern towhees foraging at feeders. Reviews show that animal matter makes up a larger proportion of the diet in the breeding season. Insects such as beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, ants, wasps, bees, moths and caterpillars are also part of their diet, depending of the season.

“I do not see them often but I hear them and I know that they are probably watching me, they are naturally shy.”

Photo Gallery

Female

Juvenile

Female juvenile

Text and photographs © HJ Ruiz – Avian101

Tags: birds, Eastern Towhee, nature, photography, photos of birds

Northern Hero

This remarkable bird is one of my favorite from all the birds I have in my backyard. The Northern Mockingbird.

The northern mockingbird is a medium-sized mimid that has long legs and tail. Both males and females look alike. Its upper parts are colored gray, while its underparts have a white or whitish-gray color. It has parallel white wing bars on the half of the wings connected near the white patch giving it a distinctive appearance in flight. The black central rectrices and typical white lateral rectrices are also noticeable in flight. The iris is usually a light green-yellow or a yellow, but there have been instances of an orange color. The bill is black with a brownish black appearance at the base.

The mockingbird usually resides in fields and forest edges. It is usually seen in farmlands, roadsides, city parks, suburban areas, and open grassy areas with thickets and brushy deserts.

Although many species of bird imitate the vocalizations of other birds, the Northern Mockingbird is the best known in North America for doing so. Among the species and vocalizations imitated are Carolina wren, Northern Cardinal, Tufted Titmouse, Eastern Towhee, House Sparrow, and Eastern Bluebird songs, calls of the Northern Flicker and, Black Phoebe to name a few.

A couple of days ago a Cooper’s Hawk came to the backyard and went after a group of small birds at the feeders. One Northern Mockingbird that was on the top of the roof descended rapidly and flew across in front of the hawk and distracted it from the chase, the hawk went after the mockingbird and the chase began. It was two master flyers’ dog fight. Not very long after the mockingbird played a what it has to be a rehearsed and superb move, he flew directly to one corner of my neighbor’s house and just inches before impact, he made a tight left turn and the hawk made the cut to the right hardly in time not without partially bumping the down spout of the house, made a loud thud sound but the hawk kept on flying, the mockingbird was by then safely away from the beaten predator.

“Through the years I’ve seen several chases like that one between a mockingbird and a larger predator, thus, saving smaller birds from becoming victims.”

Photo Gallery