Spotted Towhee
Male Spotted Towhees have jet-black upperparts and throat; their wings and back are spotted bright white. The flanks are warm rufous and the belly is white. Females have the same pattern but are grayish brown where males are black. In flight, look for white corners to the black tail.
Spotted Towhees hop over the ground beneath dense tangles of shrubs, scratching in leaf litter for food. They also climb into lower branches to search for insects and fruits, or to deliver their quick, buzzy song. Towhees can fly long distances, but more often make short, slow flights between patches of cover.
The spotted towhee 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.
