Bird of the Month - March 2004
California
Towhee
Pipilo crissalis
In the heat of mid-afternoon, when most birds have fallen silent, metallic call-notes coming from a shrub-dotted slope announce the presence of California Towhees. These are stout brown birds, nearly as plain as any, lacking the white markings in wing and tail shown by the Spotted Towhee. Adults have buffy-orangeish undertail coverts and a buffy throat. California Towhees are notable for the frequency with which members of pairs keep in contact. They squeal and quiver their wings upon meeting in the territory. In addition to the sharp single calls given by each sex, males deliver an accelerating staccato run of notes that typically drops in pitch near the end. This song is familiar---sometimes tiresomely so---to many who live within its extensive range. It is found in lowland California west of the Sierra Nevada and locally on the eastern Sierran slopes and in southern California.
As these birds favor sunny, summer-hot places in which trees may be well-scattered and dominated by various species of oaks, the California Towhee and the phrase ‘Redwood Region’ might seem an uneasy pairing. True, the old-growth redwood parks host none of these birds. This towhee is characteristic of edge habitats featuring scattered shrubs, a growth of annual grasses and forbs, and adjacent semi-open country. Lower slopes of southern exposures grown to sprawling oaks, lightly-grazed hillside pastures with clumps of shrubs, untended ground along rural roads and railroad rights-of-way, and exotic plantings in residential areas are well-populated. In Del Norte County, this species is to be searched for only in the extreme northeast corner of the county. Interior valleys of southwestern Oregon are well-known for a scattered population of California Towhees. Humboldt County hosts numerous California Towhees, but only in the southern half. Valleys, foothills, stony canyons, and ranch yards south of Highway 299---particularly in the upper Eel, South Fork Eel, and Mattole river drainages---support their share of these birds. This species is absent along the coast north of Cape Mendocino, but is quite common in appropriate habitat on grassy coastal slopes very near the ocean south of there along the remainder of the state’s coastline.
Breeding Bird Atlas surveys from 1995-1999 found California towhees in 111 blocks, or 26% of the total of 425 survey blocks. Confirmed breeding was established in 23 blocks or 21% of all blocks in which there were detections. The most frequently reported evidence was the observation of fledged young.
California Towhees usually nest in low shrubs, from four to twelve feet from the ground. Three or four bluish-white marked with brown or purple eggs are typically laid. Females incubate for eleven days; nestlings are fed by both adults and fledge about eight days after hatching (Ehrlich 1988, The Birders Handbook).
The northern limit of these birds in the Humboldt Bay region is not sharply-defined. They are recognized as uncommon but present throughout the year at Fortuna. Reports have also come from Maple Creek and Blue Lake (occasional). A very few birds have been present in the Bayside area since the mid-1990s and possibly earlier; they have nested along Jacoby Creek Road and in Sunny Brae. California Towhees have done very well in suburbia farther south in the state...will they someday be a routine sight in the towns and neighborhoods around Humboldt Bay?