Annual Visitors

Among my favorite visitors to the garden each year are the rufous-sided towhees. They breed from British Columbia east to Maine and south to California, Louisiana, Florida and Guatemala. Their usual habitat is at the edges of brushy woodlands, thus their presence here. They scratch under leaves looking for food. Nuts, seeds and fruits make up most of their diet. They also eat some insects.

I can recognize the presence of the towhees before I see them because of their distinctive call. It is a high-pitched, slowly-delivered “scree-scree-scree.” One thing I find fascinating is that rufous-sided towhees have regional accents! Depending on where they live, the towhee's call will vary. Birds in the east sound nothing like birds in the west.

The photograph above, which I did not take, is used on several internet sites with information about this beautiful bird.