Toe-Tau-Too-Ee

Day 45: However you pronounce their name, Spotted Towhees have to be one of the goofiest-looking birds in anybody's back yard. I grew up calling them "TOO-ees" (thanks to the same mother who instilled in me my pronunciation of "LITCH-en" to rhyme with "KITCH-en"); but you may call them "TAU-ees" or "TOE-ees" if you wish, and the dictionary will defend you. "TOO-ee" rhymes with "screwy," and that's what I call them: screwy towhees, doing their little hockleback scratch-kick to raise seeds from the tangled grass, their red eyes giving them a distinctive mad-as-a-March-hare look. I mean, it's serioius business being a bird, having to hunt down your food before some other opportunist grabs it, having to defend your nest against all sorts of predators, having to seek shelter against weather extremes, but Towhees just somehow seem...well, "silly" is the word which comes to mind. You won't catch me making fun of Chickadees, Jays, Sparrows, Goldfinches or any other of the birds who rely on my feeders for sustenance, but Towhees...Towhees make me laugh.

Winter Residents

Day 130: One of my most reliable winter birds is good old Spotted Towhee, aka Rufous-Sided Towhee (Pipilo maculatus), but exactly how his name is pronounced is a subject of some conjecture. Webster's Third New International Dictionary offers several options. I can't seem to copy the schwa (upside-down e) to a post, so you will have to make do with my phonetic renditions. A schwa has the sound of the o in "collect", i.e., cuh-LECT. Webster first lists TUHW-ee. The next choice puts the emphasis on the final syllable: tuhw-EE. Last of all comes the pronunciation I hear most often (one which sets my nerves on edge as surely as fingernails on a chalkboard): TOE-hee. As I say it, it is more like the first option, but with a slightly stronger first syllable, TOO-wee. But nowhere can I find justification for another pronunciation, TAU-ee.

I don't care how,
Too or toe,
But toss out tau.
It just ain't so.

Catching The Red-Eye

Day 89: "Catching the red-eye" isn't easy! Spotted (Rufous-Sided) Towhee is a ground-feeder, and a hoppy scratcher who is in constant motion. He plants his toes in soil or grass and jump-slides backwards, causing seed and bugs to fly into the air where he can see them. His tail is also active, flicking every few seconds. His active nature and habit of preferring to feed in the shelter of brush makes this robin-sized bird a difficult photographic subject indeed!

Our western version (Pipilo maculatus) shows more white spots on the wings than Eastern Towhee (P. erythrophthalmus), hence the common name. The voice is distinctly different with our western species calling its name, "too-EEE, too-EEE!" rather than the "Drink-your-teeaa! familiar to birders in the eastern US. That said, human pronunciations of "Towhee" vary even more widely: "TOW-ee" (like "cow"), TOE-ee (like "toe") or "TOO-ee" (the way I learned it.) Some people pronounce the H; others put the em-PHA-sis on the final syl-LA-ble.

Young Towhees' eyes may remain brown for some time after their feathers take on adult colouration. Adult female Towhees may demonstrate a black-crowned dark grey head. Young birds are brown and speckled, and resemble female Black-Headed Grosbeaks superficially, but observation of the feeding habit will clear up any possible mystery.

Catching The Red-Eye

Day 52: Spotted Towhee (aka Rufous-Sided Towhee, Pipilo maculatus) is a twitchy little fellow. He flicks his tail almost constantly, darting glances from side to side as if every shrub harboured a Red-Tailed Hawk on the prowl for dinner. On the ground, Towhee is even more jumpy...literally. To raise seed from the soil or in the grass, he digs in his toenails and gives a quick backward hop. He performs the same maneuver in the feeder tray, scattering seed far and wide to be picked up by others of his kind. Photographically, he's a difficult subject. Besides his nervous behaviours, he likes to stay concealed. He gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, "catching the red-eye."