Not knew to anyone that has spent any time hear on Intrigued, I am on “recovery road” trying get back on my feet after getting knocked down – a rare situation of that being metaphorically and literally. Not the first time down this road and likely not the last (some say I tend to push). This latest drive, the ankle, has proven to be one of the most debilitating injury to date. Even with the broken elbow (2 years ago), I was still able to lace up the trail shoes after a couple of weeks – this, has been a different story. Now at 8 months I am finally able to get out and get some miles in – admittedly through clinched teeth knowing every other stride is gonna come with a degree of pain. Yesterday I was listening to podcasts as I am apt to do to keep my head “out” of the run, when Mike Rowe’s podcast David Bahnsen – Poor Smart and Desperate came up next on the running playlist (link here). Next thing I know I am back at the Jeep after my longest run since the injury at 8 miles. The perfect topic at the perfect time. I won’t go into detail, but the topics of Macro happiness and producers vs consumers hit me right between the ears. It is easy to get yourself down when micro level issues don’t go as planned, but the question posed was whether I was happy at a macro level. 8 miles later (apparently) the answer was an absolutely YES. Sure, there are minutia/momentary bouts of unhappiness, the ankle, the elbow, paperwork here, malfunction there etc. but do those outweigh the good things – not even close. Family life is wonderful, great friends, recent checkup was outstanding, I’m out of the daily grind and we get to share our adventures while talking birds and haunts – Life is good. Oh, and on the producer front we now have our 3rd haunt how-to video out which I’ll share at the end if you are interested.
Few things make me happier than when I get to share a new check on the bird life list, so let me introduce you to today’s featured feathered friend.
Hit the jump to read more about this new check from the Sparrow family.
I am pretty sure this is a record for Intrigued as it is the THIRD Sparrow themed post in a row from me (Brad was able to spice it up a bit with a few of his adventures mixed in there). Today’s feature probably looks the most similar to the traditional members of that family – the ones that have the Sparrow indicator directly in their names. This however is one of the 6 Towhee subclass members.
In the previous Rufouspalooza post (link here), I commented that between Brad and I we had all the Towhees checked off. Brad having the distinction of tinning the California variety. In that post was the foreshadowing that the Canyon Towhee write-up was coming which would mean they were not all just tinned, but they would all have their time in the feature spotlight – no mystery here, that day has come.
Most Towhees tend to stick out in their family due to their splashes of color. The Spotted and Eastern are the flashiest adorned in their bright rufous/cinnamon and black colorings. The Green-Tailed have their own splashes of rufous and green/yellow tints and even the Abert’s have a distinctive black mask that make them easily identifiable in the field. The Canyon, eh, not so much. These Towhees prefer to be more discrete and blend into their preferred dessert scrub environment.
Californias are similarly bland, but fortunately these two Towhee species have little to no overlap with the California preferring to ride the big waves off the west coast versus the more traditional southeastern states and down into Central America for the Canyon. If you should need to distinguish those two, the California appears more overall grey than the Canyon and does not have the chest spot you can see in some of these pictures.
I’ve reference a “lifer” experience being like “breaking the seal” while enjoy a night of spirits (for clarity, not the haunt kind ha). It seems like whenever you see a particular species for the first time, you can’t stop seeing them from that point on. I’ll leave you to figure out the bar analogy. That is exactly the case with this Canyon Towhee. The very first time I encountered it was at an RV resort in Benson, Arizona back in January of 2024 (yes, I am that far behind in my processing, I know it, Linda knows it, Brad knows it, we all know it and now I am even further behind thanks to our latest Texas and Arizona trips). We had stopped there to spend a few days with friends from Linda’s dog training group that had moved out there to live full time in an their RV. Little did I know how incredible the birding would be there.
There were several washes in and around that resort that were absolutely full of great Arizona targets. We made a point to visit there longer this year so I could explore that area even more. Somewhat surprising, these Canyon Towhees were quite abundant in that wash area. The other Towhees tend to be heard and not seen as they stick to the heavy underbrush – especially those Green-Tailed. Their lack of coloring through evolution or design (your choice) fits this more open behavior as they can blend right into the brown grasses and soils that dominate their environment.
Luckily we are blessed with good vision and can pick out their movements along the ground easier than their potential predators. They do have that splash of rufous under their tail with the exception of the Green-Tailed which I joke must have had its head up its ass and got that detail on the top of their head instead.
Per the bar reference, we pretty much saw these Canyons at every stop we made the rest of the way through Arizona. The first two shots and the shot below were taken on the Sycamore Trail in Tucson and the one right above this was taken at Desert Museum. Sidebar, if you get a chance, we highly recommend visiting the Arizona-Senora Desert Museum located on the east side of Tucson. It is rather pricey and they do not have any reciprocating agreements with other museums, zoos or gardens. We hesitated at first not knowing what was there on our first stop, but did some research and decided to take a chance. In the end, glad we did as it very nicely done and they have my absolute favorite animal – the Ocelot.
Ooops, out of shots. Better get you a couple of interesting facts in appreciation for your time here. Not surprising to me, but Cornell notes that this Canyon Towhee and the California variety were once consider the same species and went by the name Brown Towhee. Thankfully they split if nothing else to get them a better name! Definitely similar in look, but DNA analysis led to their split in 1989. Lastly (Cornell is sadly lacking in cool facts on this one), the Canyon will align their two nesting cycles per year to the regional rain cycles in winter and summer. If there is someone from Cornell reading this, you might want to reconsider this line “They look very similar to the widespread California Towhee” as that does not align with your own region maps.
Lastly, though I would share the latest video from our haunt department. We originally thought these would get easier to make as time went on. Tim (at Off Center and Not Even – link here) cautioned us on that opinion and turns out he is absolutely right as they are taking even longer now to produce! At least they are a lot of fun to do. If you are interested, check out our third video from the scare lab.
Take care everyone and thanks for coming by.
Wildlife Intrigued 
That Towhee is cute no matter how drab he may be. Happy to read your ankle is better. Like, wow, man! That is totally U Vibing cool colors with Freddy’s syringe hands. Excellent video.
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Definitely a step up from the rest of the members of the Sparrow family, that’s for sure. I just got really bad news on my ankle – MRI being scheduled and surgery imminent. Surgeon is expecting me to be out rest of the summer and maybe into fall with recovery and therapy. I done messed it up good, but finally with a doctor that understands my situation and understands the runner’s mentality.
Thanks for the kind words on the video. I still have lots to learn and based on the quality of videos you have been producing there is a lot of room for improvement with our efforts. As you rightly noted, they do not seem to be getting any easier, but we have been able to polish them up a bit. More coming for sure. UV is a mainstay on our haunted trail – amazing what that spectrum of light does for upping our fear factor ha! Appreciate you dropping in and checking out our video.
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That’s a heck of an augmented F note on your ankle. Sorry, surgery to save your suffering ankle sounds like pure suckage. Especially for your running. Will the recovery eat into your haunt production, or will you be able to Jack Boot your way around the shop while recovering?
Another problem with video is that each time you come up with a way to improve the production value, it usually involves more time.
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Some would say the ankle hit the “brown” note ha! Tomorrow is my MRI – trying to stay optimistic, but not sure what I want to hear. If they don’t find anything then the current pain is the new norm, but if they do find something (and the surgeon all but assured me they will) then there is hope, but it will be a lot of work to recover back to where I need to be. I guess in truth I am hoping for the latter as I can power through if there is a favorable end state. I am really worried about the haunted trail on the prep front, but hoping I can still do a lot of the prop building from a chair. Clearing the trails and hauling the props down is a different story so pulling my hair out on that front. You are so right on the video front. I get an idea and sure enough, I have to read pages and pages (or watch youtube videos) to make it happen. Working on a video now that is taking me forever. Appreciate you coming by, we are about to get with a mega storm.
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Wonderful photos!
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Thank you Anneli! Although a bit on the dull colorwise, still a fun bird to photograph.
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I am pretty sure I’ve seen these little guys in northern AZ. We hiked a trail near Sedona on Friday that you would enjoy from a birding standpoint. I plan to post about it soon.☀️
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Will definitely check out your recommendation regarding Sedona hikes. We were just there a few months ago and had a wonderful time even baptizing the new Jeep on one of their trails! I had a lot of fun there and looking forward to going back in the future – also had quite the impressive haul birding there so win win ha! Appreciate you dropping in Lisa, take care.
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Love his little rufous britches! You did a great job of getting photos that showed the bird clearly, while also showing how well-suited he is to hiding in his habitat.
Thanks for the tip on Mike Rowe’s podcast, I listened to part of one – very entertaining. I’ll have to check him out some more. And glad he helped you through the run… though I’ll keep my doubts regarding the wisdom of continued beatings to myself. Hmph.
Arizona continues to prove to be full of great bird destinations… my list is getting quite long 🙂
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Rufous britches…cracks me up. I think that would be a much better name than the Gray Catbird to show off the similar undertail coloring. I also don’t like the fact they used their mortal enemy in the name of a bird ha. I find Mike Rowe incredibly entertaining and make a point to never miss his podcasts. He has fascinating people on and he interviewing abilities are top level. As far as your assessment of the continued beatings, well, I received very bad news today from my ankle surgeon – major damage was done to the ankle of which most of it was missed diagnosed by the previous doctors I had looked at it. Not only were there breaks in the tibia, but the fibia also has breaks in it along with tendon emulsions. There are also ligament and tendon tears in the deep interior of the ankle. MRI scheduled and almost assuredly surgery taking me out for summery and early fall – race season officially lost. Only good news is I finally have a path past this nagging injury. Linda was absolutely shocked when the doctor asked me when it happened I told him mile 2 of a 50 miler. He then asked did you finish the race of which I responded affirmative. His response: “Good, that is exactly what I would have done!”. This doc gets me ha!
Arizona rocks – more coming from the 2024 trip and a WHOLE lot more from our even better birding experience in that state this year.
Take care and thanks again for coming by.
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Drabby? Perhaps. But it serves as camouflage! Not well enough for your sharp eye and lens! 📸🤩
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True! I am sure these Towhees appreciate the ability to scavenge around the desert scrub for tasty morsels without having to worry about being seen by the local predators – of course we have an advanced abilities in that front that allows us to see through their cunning disguise. Appreciate you coming by and joining the conversation!
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Nicely captured. With this one, does Intrigued get to claim a double hat-trick of towhee?
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That is affirmative – Team Intrigued has it covered and you get an extra bonus for the hockey reference. I still need to match your find of the California variety, but that will require me to break my travel pledge ha.
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If I’d only thrown in a Monty Python reference, I would have had the full cycle of bonus points? Maybe if you stand on the border with a really really really long lens you can accomplish both feats: the CA version and not breaking your travel pledge.
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That is an approach for getting some of those Cali checks – similar to when we went to Tahoe…just enough in the state to claim the check without a full commit ha.
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Nice images of Canyon Towhees, Brian. In my experience, they are fairly tolerant of people. In a parking lot at Chaco Canyon, one even hopped into our car to check it out when we left the door open, and wasn’t in a hurry to leave again.
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Thank you Tanja! What a great experience with that adventurous specimen at Chaco Canyon. I have never had one willingly jump in one of our vehicles before – a few have blown in and a few stupid ones try to get in through the grill while driving, but to have one Uber you is hilarious. They may be more tolerant of us thinking we can’t see them with their clever disguise..then again, that doesn’t account for when they leave the scrub and jump into your car – maybe I should refer to that one as a Carhee. Thanks for coming by.
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Carhee–I love it! 😊
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