Species: Pipilo maculatus

Spotted Towhee

Species

Birds

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Terrestrial vertebrates: birds

Encyclopedia of Puget Sound

Classification

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Craniata

Class

Aves

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Emberizidae

Genus

Pipilo

NatureServe

Source:
ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.104406

Classification

Other Global Common Names

Toquí - tohi tacheté

Informal Taxonomy

Animals, Vertebrates - Birds - Perching Birds

Formal Taxonomy

Animalia - Craniata - Aves - Passeriformes - Emberizidae - Pipilo - Formerly regarded as conspecific with P. ERYTHROPHTHALUMS (AOU 1998). Citing morphological, behavioral, and mtDNA differences (e.g., Ball and Avise 1992), AOU (1995) split the rufous-sided towhee into two species, P. ERYTHROPTHALMUS (eastern towhee, central and eastern North America) and P. MACULATUS (spotted towhee, mainly west of the Great Plains). Limited hybridization occurs in a narrow zone in the central Great Plains. Socorro Island form sometimes regarded as a separate species, P. SOCORROENSIS (Socorro Towhee) (AOU 1998). See Banks and Browning (1995) for a discussion of nomenclatural issues involving PIPILO.

Ecology and Life History

Short General Description

A bird (towhee).

Migration

true - true - true - Spring arrival in northern parts of range between late March and mid-May; fall departure between early September and early October (Greenlaw 1996). Northern Great Plains populations winter in southwest New Mexico to southeast Texas and Mexico. South-central Rocky Mountain populations winter from Arizona to east-central Texas and Mexico. North Central Rocky Mountain birds winter from southern California to southeast Arizona (Greenlaw 1996).

Non-migrant

true

Locally Migrant

true

Food Comments

Forages on the ground beneath shrubs and undergrowth, using a two-footed scratching maneuver to find food among loose debris (Greenlaw 1996). Eats various invertebrates, seeds, small fruits, some small vertebrates (Terres 1980). Diet includes many types of beetles (Coleoptera); grasshoppers and crickets (Orthoptera); true bugs (Heteroptera); ants and wasps (Hymenoptera); flies (Diptera); butterflies and moths, including larvae (Lepidoptera); leafhoppers, aphids and allies (Homoptera); spiders (Araneae); millipedes (Diplopoda); and sowbugs (Isopoda; Greenlaw 1996). Commonly eats seeds and fruits, particularly in nonbreeding season, and sometimes blossoms and young leaves (Dahlsten et al. 1985, Greenlaw 1996). In California, stomach contents (N = 6) were 84.1% animal, 13.2% vegetable and 2.7% mineral (Dahlsten et al. 1985), but relative composition varies with season and locality (Greenlaw 1996). See Greenlaw (1996) for extensive list of plants found in diet. Less known about composition of diet in nonbreeding season, particularly types of invertebrate prey.

Reproduction Comments

Clutch size usually 3-5 (range 2-6). Will renest if first broods suffer mortality, and second broods are uncommon. Incubation, entirely by female, lasts 12-14 days. Only female broods but both parents feed young and remove fecal sacs. Young leave nest unable to fly at 9-11 days; parents continue to feed dependent young out of nest for another 30 days (Ehrlich et al. 1988, Greenlaw 1996, Baicich and Harrison 1997). A host to brood parasites (see Threats above).

Ecology Comments

In nonbreeding season, forms loose flocks and can be somewhat gregarious. Family groups remain together throughout summer (Ehrlich et al. 1988). See Greenlaw (1996) for density estimates and patterns.

Length

Weight

Conservation Status

NatureServe Global Status Rank

Global Status Last Reviewed

1996-12-04

Global Status Last Changed

1996-12-04

Other Status

LC - Least concern

Distribution

Conservation Status Map

Global Range

H - >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles) - H - BREEDING: southern British Columbia, southern Alberta, and southern Saskatchewan south to southern California, northwestern Baja California, southern Nevada, Arizona, and through the Mexican highlands to Chiapas and central Guatemala, and east to the central Dakotas, north-central and western Nebraska, central Colorado, eastern New Mexico, and extreme western Texas; disjunctly in southern Baja California (AOU 1983, Greenlaw 1996). See Sauer et al. (2000) for large-scale mapped density estimates (range-wide) based on North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data. NON-BREEDING: south coastal British Columbia, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado (casually farther north) south to Baja California, northern Sonora, through the Mexican breeding range to central Guatemala, and to south-central Texas (AOU 1983).

Global Range Code

Global Range Description

>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)

ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.104406