How to Notice Towhees
Where to Find Them
Look low. Towhees favor brushy edges, backyard thickets, foothills, leaf litter, desert scrub, and tangled places where they can stay partly hidden while feeding on the ground.
What to Watch For
Towhees often feed by scratching backward through leaves with both feet. Watch for a larger sparrow shape, long tail, bold movement, and flashes of color as they pop in and out of cover.
Listen Closely
Spotted Towhees often give a distinctive cat-like call from thick cover. Green-tailed Towhees can be easier to hear than see as they return to foothill and mountain breeding areas.
Explore Further
- Spotted Towhee Guide (All About Birds)
- Green-tailed Towhee Guide (All About Birds)
- Abert's Towhee Guide (All About Birds)
Towhees
Do not let the name or size fool you. Towhees are actually large sparrows, and they are found only in North America. They feel bigger, bolder, and more dramatic than many of the small brown birds people usually picture when they hear the word sparrow.
This week also lands at the perfect time in Utah. Green-tailed Towhees are returning from their winter range and moving back into foothills, mountain brush, and breeding habitat. I just had one show up in my own backyard again, working through the rocky, leafy places where food collects.
That is the towhee rhythm: stay low, scratch through leaves, vanish into cover, then suddenly appear right where you were hoping to see one.
The Backyard Scratcher
Spotted Towhees are the towhees many Utah birders are most likely to know. They can be found year-round, especially around brushy yards, parks, riparian edges, foothills, and desert scrub.
They may shift around with the seasons, bouncing between valleys, foothills, and warmer scrub habitat, but their behavior stays familiar. If you hear rustling under shrubs or see leaves flipping near the ground, look carefully. A towhee may be doing the work.
Their black, white, and orange pattern makes them one of the flashier sparrows once they step into the open, but they are often heard or detected by movement before they are fully seen.
Three Utah Towhees
Utah’s towhee story is small enough to feel approachable, but still varied enough to be exciting. Spotted Towhee is widespread and familiar. Green-tailed Towhee brings a seasonal pulse as spring returns. Abert’s Towhee is the desert specialist—the one you hope for when you are birding the St. George area.
Abert’s Towhee is much plainer than the others, but that is part of what makes it interesting. Instead of flashy wing spots or a rusty crown, it blends into desert washes and scrubby places with warm brown tones and a quieter presence.
When you are lucky enough to find one, it feels like the desert has let you in on a secret.
