Call of the Eastern Towhee

Someone once told me that only one bird makes the sound typically associated with birds. The sound I refer to is Tweet! (Remember the cartoon character Tweety Bird?) Well, since then, whenever I hear this sound, which to my ears is more something like Ter-weet!--two syllables sang as one--I know a Eastern Towhee is about.

Earlier this year (April 25 post), I wrote about the Eastern Towhee, at that time discussing its song . . . Drink Your Tea! Of course, birds do more than sing. Like you or me, they often need to "call out" at times to family members. Sometimes this is to say, "Hey, watch out! Someone's coming!" or "Hey, I found some food!" or "Where are you? I'm over here!" So when learning to identify birds, you need to recognize that one species can make many different sounds.

Thus, the male Eastern Towhee will sing "Drink Your Tea!" (in varying renditions) but both male and female will call out to each other, with a crisp, melodic Ter-weet! Tory Peterson describes the call as a loud "chewink," which is how some people might hear it.

Just yesterday morning, I heard the loud Ter-weet! or Chewink! of the Eastern Towhee and trained my binoculars on the bird making this alarm call. What I saw was a female towhee (photograph courtesy of Ken Thomas), much like the bird in this photo. But my towhee clasped a grasshopper in her bill. Even so, she could call her alarm to others that I was approaching!

Till next time . . . happy birding!

Georgia Anne