BIRD SPECIES

Canyon Towhee

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Melozone fusca

The Canyon Towhee is a large sparrow with fairly long tail, chunky body and short rounded wings.
It is a native to lower-lying areas from Arizona, southern Colorado, and western Texas south to northwestern Oaxaca, Mexico, mostly avoiding the coasts.

Both sexes measure about 8.3 - 9.8 inches in length, with 11.5 inches wingspan and weight ranging from 37 - 53 grams.
They are plain brown overall with warm rusty undertail coverts, buffy throat and a hint of a reddish crown.

CALL: A low-pitched, two-parted "she-dup". Mated pairs also make a high, thin "seep" note to stay in touch with each other or in alarm, and nestlings that hear this note go quiet.

SONG: Consists of 6-8 repeated, two-parted syllables, sounding like "chili-chili-chili", lasting 1–2 seconds and often introduced by a call note.

Diet consists mostly of seeds and insects.

Its natural habitat is brush or chaparral.

The female builds a bulky nest of grass and plant stems lined with fine grasses, horse-hair, or even pieces of old rags.
She lays 2 - 6 bluish-white to pearl-gray eggs, spotted with brown, black, or purple. She incubates the eggs alone.

SOURCES:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org
https://www.sdakotabirds.com
https://en.wikipedia.org