Species Spotlight August 2022

Humm, what was that? Spotted Towhee vs Black-headed Grosbeak

When there is a quiet moment in the Contact Station, I like to look out the side windows at the feeder to see what might be there.  This spring I have been enjoying the company of several Black-headed Grosbeaks and Spotted Towhees.  It occurred to me that the male grosbeak and the male towhee have a very similar fashion sense.  Talking to a visitor I looked up to see a bird on the feeder and said, “Oh, there’s the Black-headed Grosbeak. No, it’s a Spotted Towhee.”  No, wait, on the ground there was one of each, similar in appearance but different in several ways.  It got me thinking about how a quick glance can get you in trouble with your identification.  It does happen.

Sorry for the bad photos from my cell phone through the windows of the contact station, but given the position of the birds, they really illustrate what I am about to say.

Both birds here are on the gravel below the feeder searching for fallen seeds.  They both have black heads, black backs, rusty red sides, and white spots on the wings.  If the bird is quick and leaves before you have a chance to get a good look you may have to think a bit.  With a longer view, you can see the differences which would secure your identification.  The white spots on the wings are large on one bird and variable and scattered on the other.  For one, the rusty color goes around the neck and covers the upper chest whereas the other bird has black in that area and looks like it is wearing a hoodie. One bird stands more upright and the tail angles down, while the other has its tail cocked up.  And then there is the bill.  One is huge and seems to come out of its forehead while the other is much more petite yet conical.  Here is a photo from my Ridgefield backyard

which helps discern the difference in the bill.  Also, from the slightly different angle, you can see the bright white belly of the Spotted Towhee in the second photo, where the Black-headed Grosbeak is all rusty.  Harder to see in these photos is the black eye of the grosbeak and the red eye of the towhee.  There is plenty of information there to tell them apart if you focus on the right characteristic or get a long enough look to see the various “tells”.

The Spotted Towhee is a year-round bird for us.  Getting to know it well, including its habits, can help you identify the grosbeak when it arrives in spring. Both like to hide in their own way.  The towhee spends time in scrubby bushes and scratching on the ground.  The grosbeak likes to be near the tops of tall trees but just low enough to be out of sight in the leaves.  Very frustrating.  If it weren’t for the beautiful long song, you might not know it is there.  The towhee likes to “sing” too, but unlike the grosbeak, what comes out of its beak probably wouldn’t get a spot on The Voice. Sometimes it is described as raspy or a husky gurgling.

The females of these two species will not get you into the same quandary of misidentification.  The female Spotted Towhee is brownish and duller than the male while the female Black-headed Grosbeak actually has a striped head, very distinct from the male, and towhees for that matter.

Fun fact for Black-headed Grosbeaks:  Both male and female Black-headed Grosbeaks sing. Unlike many birds which get quiet once nesting starts, they will both sing from the nest. The male sings to defend its territory.  The female has a more simplified song used to communicate with the male and young that have fledged.  But females can give full voice to a song when needed to aggressively defend their nesting area and possibly their mate from other females!

Fun fact for Spotted Towhee:  The towhee is a hopper.  It hops forward on the ground during locomotion, but backward when scratching with both lets together. There is slow hopping with frequent pauses while foraging or rapid hops across small openings. It has the muscle development particular to this kind of locomotion.  It will also move thorough crowns of shrubs by hopping between close branches or leaps with a wing assist for longer distances.

-Susan Setterberg, Contact Station Volunteer
-images by Susan Setterberg