Green-Tailed Towhee
Pipilo chlorurus
About This Species
Search dense mountain shrub and sagebrush slopes of the western United States for this ground-loving sparrow relative, which scratches through leaf litter for seeds and insects and gives a distinctive, cat-like mewing call from cover. It tends to stay low and skulk in thickets, so patient still watching near dense shrub edges works better than active searching. It breeds in montane shrub through spring and summer before moving to lower desert scrub in Mexico and the southwestern United States for winter.
Ethical Viewing Guidelines
- Stay on trails at the edge of dense shrub habitat rather than pushing into thickets, since this ground-nesting species can be flushed off eggs by close approach through cover.
- Protections for native songbirds vary between its US breeding range and Mexican wintering grounds, so check local regulations rather than assuming one rule applies throughout.
- If a bird is heard calling persistently from one spot, the cautious response is to observe from where you are rather than moving closer, as that often signals a nearby nest.
LCAvesPasseriformesPasserellidae
Seasonal Activity
385,604 sightings · 2000–2026
Citizen science records via GBIF
All monthsThis month
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Passerellidae
Photo
(c) Ad Konings, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Ad Konings
CC-BY-NC-4.0
Occurrence data from GBIF.