#2950 "Eastern Towhee Sing On"

#2950 "Eastern Towhee Sing On" 

20 X 16 inches by 3/4 profile in depth.

Started at 9:00 am Wednesday, June 4th, 2025

I start all of these bird portraits with the eyes and the beak. It is essential to get these perfect; otherwise, the painting will fail. Sometimes it comes with the first brush stroke. Sometimes it is a job requiring several visits. 

The Towhee is a strikingly marked, oversized sparrow of the East, feathered in bold black and warm reddish-browns. It is heard far more than it is seen. The Eastern Towhees spend their time rummaging in the undergrowth. They scratch at leaves using both feet at the same time, in a kind of backwards hop while making a lot of noise. The Eastern Towhee is mainly seen when it climbs into low trees to sing, like this one. 

Towhees eat many foods: seeds, fruits, insects, spiders, millipedes, centipedes, and snails, as well as soft leaf and flower buds in spring. They also eat seeds and fruits, including ragweeds, smartweeds, grasses, acorns, blackberries, blueberries, wheat, corn, and oats. 

Eastern Towhees usually nest on the ground, the nest cup sunk into the fallen leaves up to the level of the rim. Sometimes the nests are constructed in shrubs or grape, honeysuckle, or greenbrier tangles, up to about 4 feet off the ground. 

The Eastern Towhee and the similar Spotted Towhee of western North America used to be considered the same species, the Rufous-sided Towhee. The two forms still occur together in the Great Plains, where they sometimes interbreed. This is a common evolutionary pattern in North American birds – a holdover from when the great ice sheets split the continent down the middle, isolating birds into eastern and western populations that eventually became new species.

Eastern Towhees are common victims of the parasitic Brown-headed Cowbird. Female cowbirds lay eggs in towhee nests, then leave the birds to raise their cowbird young. In some areas, cowbirds lay eggs in more than half of all towhee nests. Towhees, unlike some other birds, show no ability to recognize or remove the impostor’s eggs. Female cowbirds typically take out a towhee egg when laying their own, making the swap still harder to notice.

Eastern Towhees tend to be solitary, using threat displays to tell other towhees to back off. Studies have shown that male towhees tend to defend territories many times larger than needed simply to provide food.

The oldest known Eastern Towhee was at least 9 years old when it was recaptured and rereleased in South Carolina. It was originally banded in the same state in 1937.

Eastern Towhees are numerous and commonly seen throughout their range, but their numbers declined by an estimated 1.4% per year for a cumulative decline of about 53% between 1966 and 2019. A study by the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) in Canada showed a 47% decrease in numbers since 1970.

Partners in Flight estimates a global breeding population of 29 million and rates them 11 out of 20 on the Continental Concern Score, indicating a species of relatively low conservation concern. Numbers of these birds rose in the mid-twentieth century as people stopped farming and their fields returned to nature. Expansion of subdivisions made the landscape less suitable. 

"Special Concern" means the species lives in the wild in Ontario and is not endangered or threatened, but may become threatened or endangered. Special concern species do not receive any species or habitat protection. Shame. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick