Summary ⁶

The Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus) is a large New World sparrow. The taxonomy of the towhees has been debated in recent decades, and formerly this bird and the Eastern Towhee were considered a single species, the Rufous-sided Towhee. An archaic name for the Spotted Towhee is the Oregon Towhee (Pipilo maculatus oregonus).

Range description ⁷

Pipilo maculatus is distributed throughout western U.S.A. and extreme southwestern Canada, as well as patchily in Mexico and Guatemala (del Hoyo et al. 2011). The subspecies consobrinus, endemic to Mexico's Guadalupe Island, is considered extinct, having not been recorded since the late 1800s (Kaeding 1905).

Habitat and ecology ⁸

Systems

• Terrestrial

Migration ⁹

Non-Migrant: Yes. At least some populations of this species do not make significant seasonal migrations. Juvenile dispersal is not considered a migration.

Locally Migrant: Yes. At least some populations of this species make local extended movements (generally less than 200 km) at particular times of the year (e.g., to breeding or wintering grounds, to hibernation sites).

Locally Migrant: Yes. At least some populations of this species make annual migrations of over 200 km.

Migration patterns variable among different populations. Northern interior breeding populations are migratory or partly migratory; increasingly sedentary southward and near coastal areas. Migratory populations arrive in northern breeding areas in March-April (Terres 1980, Greenlaw 1996). Pacific Coastal birds mostly resident, although some in interior coast are short-distance migrants. In some areas summer residents migrate and are replaced by more northern birds that overwinter (Greenlaw 1996).

Spring arrival in northern parts of range between late March and mid-May; fall departure between early September and early October (Greenlaw 1996). Northern Great Plains populations winter in southwest New Mexico to southeast Texas and Mexico. South-central Rocky Mountain populations winter from Arizona to east-central Texas and Mexico. North Central Rocky Mountain birds winter from southern California to southeast Arizona (Greenlaw 1996).

Sources and Credits

1. (c) sarbhloh, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/29452402@N07/2939912802
2. (c) Wikimedia Commons, some rights reserved (CC BY), https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/Pipilo_maculatus_05749.JPG/460px-Pipilo_maculatus_05749.JPG
3. (c) Walter Siegmund, some rights reserved (CC BY), https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/Pipilo_maculatus_31033.JPG/460px-Pipilo_maculatus_31033.JPG
4. (c) 1999 California Academy of Sciences, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=752&one=T
5. (c) 2009 Kay Loughman, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=292744&one=T
6. (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipilo_maculatus
7. (c) International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/31204867
8. (c) International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/31204869
9. (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/28918742

More Info

• iNat taxon page
• Animal Diversity Web
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• CalPhotos
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• NatureServe Explorer 2.0
• VertNet
• Xeno-canto

Range Map

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