I Cut A Swath Of Destruction Wherever I Go - Blog Posts

idrawtooslow

1 month ago

Spotted Towhees (Pipilo maculatus) look like someone took an American Robin (Turdus migratorius) and tried to make it "edgy."

A Spotted Towhee, seen from the left and slightly behind, looking back at the camera with one bright red eye. The bird's head and back are black instead of an American Robin's grayish brown, and speckled with white, as if it's wearing a black leather "battle jacket" covered with metal studs.

Its beak is heavier, and a broad white streak runs across the middle of its rufous breast and belly. Its posture seems vaguely furtive.

By Pranav Tadepalli, CC BY-SA 4.0

And they really are edgy little fuckers, too. They'll pull up every single shoot that pokes its head above ground in your garden, and are very clever at getting through barriers. They do not fear humans, not further than you could lightly toss one.

If you find a roadkill or mysteriously-dead towhee in Spring, it's worth its weight in gold, because they are deterred by a corpse of their own species. The next problem is putting it somewhere these ground-feeding birds will notice it, without making it a free snack for the first scavenger that comes along.