The eastern towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus), also known as chewink, joree, or joree bird,Eastern Towhee Pipilo erythrophthalmus. Carolinabirdclub.org is a large New World sparrow. The taxonomy of the towhees has been under debate in recent decades, and formerly this bird and the spotted towhee were considered a single species, the rufous-sided towhee.
Their breeding habitat is brushy areas across eastern North America. They nest either low in bushes or on the ground under shrubs. Northern birds migrate to the southern United States. One of this species was recorded as a vagrant to western Europe, a single bird in Great Britain in 1966.
The song is a short drink your teeeeea lasting around one second, starting with a sharp call ("drink!") and ending with a short trill "teeeeea". The name "towhee" is onomatopoeic description of one of the towhee's most common calls, a short, two-part call rising in pitch and sometimes also called a "chewink" call.
Taxonomy The eastern towhee was described by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae and given the binomial name Fringilla erythrophthalma. This species is now placed in the genus Pipilo that was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816. The specific name erythrophthalmus/erythrophthalma combines the Ancient Greek words "red" and "eye".
Four subspecies are recognised: P. e. erythrophalmus (Linnaeus, 1758), found south-central and southeast Canada to the eastern United States P. e. canaster (Howell, AH, 1913), found in the interior southeast United States P. e. rileyi (Koelz, 1939), found in the coastal southeast United States except for central and southern Florida P. e. alleni (Coues, 1871) found in south and central Florida
Description The eastern towhee is a large and striking species of sparrow. Their total lengths range from and their wingspans are .Eastern Towhee, Life History, All About Birds – Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Allaboutbirds.org. Retrieved on 2013-01-05.Eastern Towhee Pipilo erythrophthalmus . Georgia Museum of Natural History (2008). Retrieved on 2013-01-05. The body of mass of this species ranges from , with an average of .CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (1992), . Adults have rufous sides, a white belly, and a long, dark tail with white edges. The eyes are red for most populations, though populations in the southeastern U.S. have yellow eyes – often referred to as the "white-eye morph". 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. In the Great Plains, eastern towhees occasionally overlap in range with their sister species, the spotted towhee, which has resulted in rare hybrids between the two species.
Distribution The eastern towhee occurs throughout the Eastern United States and southeast Canada. Occurrences from southern Saskatchewan, southwest Ontario, and Quebec south to Florida, and west to eastern Texas are noted in a literature review. Populations north of southern New England through northern Indiana and Illinois to southern Iowa primarily are summer residents.
P. e. erythrophthalmus occurs in the most northerly part of the eastern towhee's distribution in the summer, and in winter migrates to the southern and eastern portion of the range of the species. The other subspecies are largely residents. P. e. canaster occurs from south-central Louisiana, north to northeastern Louisiana east through Mississippi, extreme southwestern Tennessee, northern Alabama and Georgia, central South Carolina to western North Carolina, and south to northwestern Florida and east along the Gulf Coast.American Ornithologists' Union. (1957). Checklist of North American birds. 5th ed. Baltimore, MD: The Lord Baltimore Press, Inc. The range of P. e. rileyi extends from northern Florida through southern Georgia and coastal South Carolina to east-central North Carolina. P. e. alleni occurs in peninsular Florida.
The eastern towhee occurs in vegetation of disturbed areas, such as old-field successional vegetation and shrubby areas of power line rights-of-way. In northwestern Arkansas, this bird occurred in old-field vegetation where dwarf sumac (Rhus copallina) occurred at a frequency of 28.6%, winged elm (Ulmus alata) at a frequency of 21%, and black cherry (Prunus serotina) at a frequency of 19.2%. Shrubby vegetation along power lines is commonly used by eastern towhees.Gates, J. Edward; Dixon, Kenneth R. (1981). "Right-of-way utilization by forest- and corridor-breeding bird populations". In: Arner, Dale, ed. Environmental concerns in right-of-way management: Proceeding of 2nd symposium; 1979 October 16–18; Ann Arbor, MI. Special Study Project WS-78-141: 66–1 to 66–7 For example, in Maryland, eastern towhee territories along a power line right-of-way corresponded with shrubby areas containing species such as Allegheny blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis) and blueberry (Vaccinium spp.). Other species included hawthorn (Crataegus spp.), red maple (Acer rubrum), black cherry, and black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia).
From 1966 to 2015, the eastern towhee experienced a greater than 1.5% annual population decrease throughout the Atlantic seaboard and the northern part of its breeding range.
Timing of major life events
Arrival and departure of eastern towhees into summer breeding grounds varies with location. According to a literature review, they typically arrive in New York in early April and leave by the middle of November. A review of eastern towhees in New Hampshire describes arrival in late April to May with the majority departing in September. Further south, on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, migration to high-elevation areas within the Great Smoky Mountains begins as early as March. Eastern towhees typically leave these sites in October. The P. e. erythrophthalmus subspecies is the most migratory of the subspecies.National Geographic Society. (1999). Field guide to the birds of North America. 3rd ed. Washington, DC: The National Geographic Society .
Breeding begins in spring and continues to late summer. Reports of eastern towhees nesting as early as late March in Florida and Georgia, in mid- to late April in some midwestern states, and as late as mid-May in northern New England were given in a literature review. Literature reviews also report nest construction by the female, which takes about 3–5 days. Egg laying typically occurs until August. For example, a review of eastern towhees in Indiana notes nesting from 15 April to 20 August. However, eastern towhees in Florida had a nest on 2 September 1983 that contained two eggs. Eastern towhees may renest after failed nesting attempts and can raise two, and in the south sometimes three, broods per season.
Greenlaw reported a mean breeding territory size of (range , n=24) in a mesic oak (Quercus species) forest where eastern towhees occurred at a density of 21 males/40 ha. In a xeric pine (Pinus species)-oak woodland where the eastern towhee density was 32 males/40 ha, mean eastern towhee territory size was (range , n=20). In Massachusetts, mean male eastern towhee territory size was about , and female eastern towhee territory size was . Territory size changed over the course of the breeding season and was not significantly affected by reductions in food availability of 30% or less. During the winter eastern towhees are not as territorial and may be seen in mixed species flocks. Daily movement of eastern towhees in loblolly (P. taeda) and longleaf pine (P. palustris) forests and clearcuts in South Carolina averaged per day. Only two females, out of 11 females and 9 males, stayed within the stand where they were captured for the duration of a 10-week study.
Eastern towhees have fairly strong fidelity to breeding territories. In an oak forest in New Jersey, adult eastern towhee return rates were 20% the first year after banding and 43% in subsequent years. Between 1960 and 1967, the maximum number of eastern towhee returns to the site was five. In a Pennsylvania woodlot observed between 1962 and 1967, an eastern towhee returned to the site for four consecutive years.
Several reviews report eastern towhee clutch sizes from two to six eggs, with means ranging from 2.45 to 3.6 eggs per nest. All five eastern towhee nests on Sanibel Island, Florida, contained three eggs each. Eastern towhees in two pitch pine (P. rigida) barrens sites in New Jersey and New York had a later median egg-laying date (mid-June) and significantly smaller average early nest clutch sizes (NJ=2.67, NY=3.25) than those in an oak-hickory (Carya spp.) site, which had a median egg-laying date in early June and an average early nest clutch size of 3.88. Food availability likely explains at least some of the differences between the two habitat types. Eggs are incubated by the female for 12 to 13 days. After hatching, both parents feed the young, which fledge 10 to 12 days later and are dependent on parental care for about another month.Foss, Carol R. (1994). Atlas of breeding birds in New Hampshire. Dover, NH: Audubon Society of New Hampshire .
A wide range of eastern towhee nest success values have been reported. On Sanibel Island, one of the five eastern towhee nests observed was successful. In Louisiana, average daily nest success rate was 95.3% on a bottomland hardwood forest site. The same study found a 92.6% average daily nest success rate in a six-year-old managed cottonwood (Populus spp.) plantation in Alabama. Average eastern towhee nest success across mixed bigtooth (P. grandidentata) and quaking aspen (P. tremuloides) stands of varying ages in Pennsylvania was 48.1%. In South Carolina, only one of 10 nests was successful, and the mean daily nest survival rate was 62.9%. This low value was explained by high levels of predation. Due to lower nest success rates of Bachman's sparrow (Aimophila aestivalis) than the previous year, eastern towhee nest success may have been measured during a comparatively poor year.
Compared to nests, adult towhee survival rates are high. Average weekly adult survival rate of eastern towhees in a South Carolina study area was 99.3%. This rate was obtained from radio-marked eastern towhees and represented the pooled survival of both sexes and from two South Carolina sites, young and mature stands of loblolly and longleaf pine. Between 1962 and 1967 in Pennsylvania, annual survival of breeding eastern towhees calculated from mist-netting recaptures was 58%. Both males and females become reproductively mature in their second year. Eastern towhees over 12 years old have been reported in the wild.
Preferred habitat
Eastern towhees range from near sea level to as high as along the border of Tennessee and North Carolina during the summer.Stupka, Arthur. (1963). Notes on the birds of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Knoxville, TN: The University of Tennessee Press A literature review reports eastern towhees up to in New Hampshire.
Eastern towhees spend the majority of their time near the ground. For instance, in Pennsylvania in spring, observations of eastern towhees below from the ground occurred significantly more than expected based on random spatial distribution, and observations above occurred significantly less than would be expected. In a Louisiana bottomland forest, 62% of eastern towhee observations were within of the ground, and only 4% were observed above . In the spring, this changed, with detections of eastern towhees below declining from 70% to 65% and detections in the canopy (>) increasing from 4 to 7%.
Eastern towhees occur in many habitats, from tallgrass prairies and marshes to mature forests, but they are most common in early successional stands, habitat edges, and areas with similar vegetation structure throughout eastern forests.