Towhee or not Towhee

[Bluffs Birder]

Hi folks,

I need a little help with this one please.  The other day I was walking along the top of the Scarborough Bluffs enjoying the sounds of spring, Red-wings, Robins, and Cardinals all calling out when all of a sudden a bird started-up down in one of the valleys between the Bluffs.  I searched for it with the binocs but found nothing.  It was a rather loud call of  "to-heee to-heee to-heee to-heee to-heee"  "to-heee to-heee to-heee to-heee to-heee"  I'm guessing it was one of the Towhees but with not ever seeing one before I'm not sure.  I've now since read that Towhees are ground feeders so I'm thinking that this is possibly why I couldn't find him...I was looking in the trees.  I tried searching the calls and songs that are available on the internet to help ID this one but haven't found anything as of yet.  A little help would be appreciated...thankyou.

[GStuart]

The Eastern Towhee (the only towhee you are likely to see or hear in these parts) has a very distinctive song, frequently given the mnemonic "drink your tea".  And while the second "note" may sometimes be quieter, the third "note" is the diagnostic one.  However, if all you heard was the call, I can't be much help.  Those one and two note calls all sound the same to me.  

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBi ... html#sound

[Bluffs Birder]

Hi GStuart,

Thanks for the information and the web link.  The Cornell page did infact say that the Eastern Towhee had a "to-heee" call in it's repertoire and I'm sure this is  why the bird is called a Towhee in the first place.  The sound file on the Cornell page didn't produce the call I was looking for but on learnbirdsongs.com sure enough there it was.....very clearly heard!!!

Thanks again
BB

[Julie]

A silly question maybe, but is there any chance it was a killdeer? I've heard them all over the place the past five days and they have a loud, plaintive two note call that rises at the end. It has always sounded more "towhee" to me than the Towhee itself does.

[Brian Bailey]

The call you're describing doesn't sound much like a towhee.  Do you know the breading season song of the Northern Cardinal?  It would fit that description (as would a number of other unfortunately), and we are starting to hear it now.

BB

[Napper]

http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/662/_/ ... owhee.aspx

I been using whatbird for a while..  it is very good.. usually has bird sounds half way down the page..

I cannot get the cornell sounds to work..


drink your tea..

[Bluffs Birder]

Hi Julie, Brian, and Napper

Thanks for the comments and suggestions...always a big help.  Julie, your suggestion of a Killdeer was good but I'm quite familiar with their call as some 23 years ago I used to play football and baseball on a school field that's situated near the top of the Scarborough Bluffs and those birds swauked and danced all over the place trying to keep us away from possibly stepping on their nest.  To my absolute amazement, this past Friday afternoon as I was walking along the trail that runs beside the old field well didn't I hear the old familiar calls once again...WOW!!!, the Killdeers were still breeding in that very same spot at the end of the field almost a quarter of a century later, unbelievable!!!

Anyway, getting back to the Eastern Towhee call.  I did a search on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's website again and found the Macaulay Library (thousands of sound and video recordings of animals behaviors.)  I did a search for the Eastern Towhee and no less than 860 recordings were available and after a little listening to several of the files, I was able to find the exact "to-heee" call that I heard the other day.

Check it out here: http://animalbehaviorarchive.org/loginPublic.do and then type 26160 in the search box.  You'll need RealPlayer to listen to the file.

Thanks again to all.
Bluffs Birder