Eastern Towhee reported in New Tripoli

Male Eastern Towhee

An Eastern Towhee made an unusual February appearance last week in Lehigh County. The sparrow-like bird is common in the Lehigh Valley during breeding season but the species prefers to winter in the southern states.

A single towhee was seen at a backyard feeder at a private residence in New Tripoli on February 4, according to the weekly report compiled by Dave DeReamus of the Eastern PA Birdline

Towhees are omnivores. They'll eat everything from seeds, fruits and springtime flower buds to insects, spiders, millipedes, centipedes and snails. Much of the time they forage along the ground, scratching and rummaging in leaf litter and hopping from morsel to morsel.

The male towhee has a bold black head, a black back, black wings and a reddish brown breast. The female towhee has the same pattern as the male towhee, except the black parts are replaced with brown. Both sexes wear a white spot in the middle of the wing.

Towhees can be found in the undergrowth and at the edge of forests. They will visit platform feeders that are placed on the ground. You may hear them singing drink-your-teeaaa or to-wheeee.

During breeding season, the Eastern Towhee often is beset by the Brown-headed Cowbird. The parasitic cowbird will lay its eggs in a towhee's nest, then leave the towhee to raise the cowbird's young. This behavior happens in half of all towhee nests. Towhees raise two or three broods per year.

The North American Breeding Bird Survey shows a gradual decline in the number of Eastern Towhees since the 1960s, mostly because of the conversion of forests and undergrowth to suburban housing tracts. The decline is especially pronounced in the Northeast, according to the National Audubon Society.