The Eastern Towhee is a large, boldly marked sparrow that most people first notice by ear — a loud rustling in the dead leaves beneath a thicket, made as the bird scratches backward with both feet at once to uncover food. The male is striking, with a jet-black hood and back, bright rufous sides, a white belly, and a glowing red eye; the female wears the same pattern in warm brown instead of black. Both give a ringing call that sounds like "chewink" or "tow-hee," the source of the bird's name.
Its song is often paraphrased as "drink-your-TEA," with a buzzy trill on the final note, and it rings from the tops of shrubs where the male sings in spring and summer. Eastern Towhees favor brushy thickets, woodland edges, and overgrown fields with dense low cover and abundant leaf litter, and they nest on or near the ground. They breed across much of Michigan and are most numerous in the warm months, with a modest number lingering into winter in the south of the state.
Feeds on seeds, insects, berries, and other invertebrates, uncovering much of its food by scratching backward through leaf litter with a distinctive two-footed hop-and-kick. It forages mostly on the ground beneath dense cover, adding more insects in summer and more seeds and fruit in the colder months.
Often an Eastern Towhee. It forages by scratching backward with both feet at once, kicking aside leaf litter, and the surprisingly loud rustling frequently reveals a bird hidden in a thicket.
A ringing "drink-your-TEA," with the last note breaking into a buzzy trill. Its call is a sharp "chewink" or "tow-hee," which gives the bird its name.
Males have a jet-black hood and back with rufous sides and a white belly; females show exactly the same pattern but in warm brown rather than black. Both have a red eye in most of the state.
Juvenile towhees are heavily streaked buff and brown for their first few weeks and look nothing like either parent. The rufous flanks and long dark tail appear first, so a streaky bird with rusty sides is a towhee finishing its first molt.
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