Green-tailed Towhee

About the Green-tailed Towhee

The Green-tailed Towhee is one of the most colorful sparrows in the West, with a rusty cap, a white throat, a gray body, and olive-green wings and tail. It spends most of its time on the ground under dense shrubs, scratching backward with both feet to turn over leaves.

It breeds in the mountain shrublands of the western United States and winters in the Southwest and Mexico. In Central Texas it is a scarce winter visitor, and a cooperative bird can draw birders from across the area.

These photographs come from fall and winter 2023: Milton Reimers Ranch Park in Travis County in October and December, and Creekside Park along the Brushy Creek Trail in Cedar Park in October.