Spotted Towhee Adds Song to Spring’s Chorus
If a loud rustling sound in the scrub oak thicket startles you, chances are that you’ve heard a Spotted Towhee rather than a large animal. This colorful bird hops into the air and scratches in the leaves with both feet at the same time, using this noisy method to find seeds and insects to eat.
Since the Towhee is a year round resident of Colorado, alert walkers and hikers have many opportunities to see this native bird. The Towhee is easy to identify with a black head, white breast, rust-colored sides, and white spots on its wings. It is a little smaller than a Robin.
Spotted Towhee at Chico Basin Bird Banding Station
In spring and early summer, the male Towhee announces its territory by perching on the highest branch of a scrub oak tree or neighborhood shrub and sings the same song over and over. The Towhee was named for its repetitive song, a trilling “tow, tow, heeeee.” Spotted Towhees are actively singing now, so listen for their trilling songs every morning. And any time of year, you may hear the Towhee rustling up “dinner” in the dry leaves.
Bird Banding at Chico Basin Ranch
Chico Basin Ranch is an 87,000-acre working cattle ranch located southeast of Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is owned by the Colorado State Land Board and managed under a one-of-a-kind lease by Duke and Janet Phillips and their family. The Ranch sponsors a licensed bird banding station that is managed by the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory. During spring and fall migration, expert birder Bill Maynard posts an online Ranch Birding Journal on chicobasinranch.com. The website also includes a Bird Checklist of the Ranch’s 320 bird species.
Description of May 9, 2009 Bird Banding:
This Saturday morning dawned cloudy and cool, about 50 degrees, but the winds were calm and the clouds were clearing. My husband, brother and I decided it would be a good day to visit the Bird Banding Station at Chico Basin Ranch, 35 miles southeast of Colorado Springs. We drove south on Interstate 25 and then east on Hanover Road. Soon after crossing the bridge over Fountain Creek, my brother spotted eight Wild Turkeys foraging in a field. The heavy-bodied male was in full display with its tail feathers fanned.
As we drove east through the rolling prairie grasslands, spiky cholla cactus dominated the landscape and Western Meadowlarks dominated the fence posts. As Pikes Peak receded in the distance, we turned south onto Peyton Highway and drove under the tall Chico Basin Ranch gate. In our expansive view, the prairie sloped southward as part of the Arkansas River drainage, and we could see tall cottonwood and willow trees that delineated the riparian areas.