Canyon Towhee
Canyon Towhee: Large sparrow, gray upperparts, pale gray underparts, large central breast spot, and white belly patch. Crown is rust-brown. Tail is long with brown undertail coverts. Legs are pink-brown. Short flights with rapidly beating wing strokes alternating with wings pulled briefly to sides.
● Song:
"chili, chili, chili, chili"
● Foraging & Feeding:
Canyon Towhee: Eats seeds and insects. Forages by double-scratching on the ground in soil or leaf litter.
● Breeding & nesting:
Canyon Towhee: Two to six light green or blue eggs with brown and black markings are laid in a cup nest made of stems, grass, and sticks, lined with leaves, bark pieces, and mammal hair, and built in a shrub or tree, usually 3 to 12 feet above the ground. Eggs are incubated for 11 days by the female.
● Similar species:
Canyon Towhee: California Towhee has rust-brown crown and grayer upperparts. Abert's Towhee is buff and has black area around bill.