Towhee Out in the Open

Mike Warner

It was a bright sunny morning a couple of days ago when Karen and I went birding at Greene Valley with three of our birder friends.  An immature female Eastern Towhee was feeding in a berry bush and kept showing itself to us (the females are brown whereas the males are black).  It’s a little unusual to have a bird be out in the open and let humans approach as close as this one did.  Every time she moved she would position herself out in the open, as if inviting us to get good shots of it.   I bet between Birder2011 and myself we took over a hundred pictures of her.  It’s always a treat to get such good looks at a bird.  Most of them shy away from humans but once in a while you get one that seems to enjoy it!