Fleckengrundammer

Bestimmung

The spotted towhee is a large New World sparrow, roughly the same size as a robin. It has a long, dark, fan-shaped tail with white corners on the end. It has a round body (similar to New World sparrows) with bright red eyes and dull pink legs. The spotted towhee is between 17 cm (6.7 in) and 21 cm (8.3 in) long, and weighs in at between 33 g (1.2 oz) and 49 g (1.7 oz). It has a wingspan of 11.0 in (28 cm).<p>Adult males have a generally darker head, upper body and tail with a white belly, rufous sides, white spots on their back and white wing bars. Females look similar but are dark brown and grey instead of black. The spotted towhee has white spots on its primary and secondary feathers; the Eastern towhee is the same bird in terms of its size and structure but does not have white spots.

Taxonomie

Gattung: Pipilo; Familie: Passerellidae; Ordnung: Passeriformes.

Wissenschaftlicher Name

Pipilo maculatus

Autorität

Swainson, 1827

Ordnung

Passeriformes

Familie

Passerellidae

Gattung

Pipilo

Verbreitung und Lebensraum

The spotted towhee lives in dry upland forests, open forests, brushy fields, and chaparrals. It breeds across north-western North America and is present year-round in California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and southern British Columbia. It is not found in arid climates and as a result does not reside in the Sonoran Desert, but resides in northern Arizona and the entirety of California except the southeast corner that borders Arizona. It has also been known to expand as far eastward as western Iowa and southwestern Minnesota. It also occurs in fringe wetland forests and riparian forests near the border of upland forests. Because the spotted towhee's habitat overlaps with areas of the United States that experience regular forest fires (Arizona, New Mexico, California), it tends to be found in unburned chaparral and avoids chaparral and forests which have been burned due to lack of ground cover and minimal foraging ability. Spotted towhees will be present in an area that is recovering after a burn (less than 15 years old), due to excellent ground cover and ease of ground foraging from the recovering understory vegetation, although populations will decrease after a forest fire until the vegetation has grown back.<p>Its breeding habitat in the southwest is largely dependent on coastal sage scrub, as it provides cover from predators. It migrates to northern and northwestern United States and southwestern Canada to breed in scrubland, parks and suburban gardens. Northwestern birds migrate eastwards to the central plains of the United States, mostly the northwestern-central Great Plains. In other areas, some birds may move to lower elevations in the winter. Their breeding habitat is chaparral, thickets or shrubby areas across western North America. This bird interbreeds with the collared towhee where their ranges overlap in southwestern Mexico.

Zugverhalten

Vollzieher

Verhalten

Zugverhalten: Vollzieher.

Schutzstatus

Bestandstrend: stabil.

Bestandstrend

stabil