A Towhee is any one of a number of species of birds in the genusPipilo (Vieillot, 1816) within the family Emberizidae (which also includes the buntings, American sparrows, and juncos).
Towhees typically have longer tails than other emberizids. Most species have rather skulking habits, so they are not well known, though the Eastern TowheeP. erythrophthalamus is bolder as well as more colorful. This species, and some others, frequent urban parks and gardens.
There has been considerable debate over the taxonomy of the towhees in recent years. Two species complexes have been identified, the rufous-sided complex (involving Pipilo erythrophthalmus, P. maculatus, P. socorroensis, P. ocai and P. chlorurus), and the brown towhee complex (involving Pipilo crissalis, P. fuscus, P. aberti and P. albicollis). The distinction of species within these is uncertain and opinions have differed over the years. Modern authorities distinguish all four species in the brown towhee complex, though P. fuscus and P. crissalis were formerly treated as a single species. Hybrids are frequent between some of the species, particularly between the Mexican races of P. maculatus ("Olive-backed Towhee", P. maculatus macronyx) and P. ocai.
The Juvenal Plumages of the Finch Genera Atlapetes and Pipilo
In Pipilo the juvenal plumage is definitely streaked both ventrally and dorsally, the streaks being least pronounced in P. ocai.
In the erythrophthalmus group, the streaking is continuous from the base of the bill to the pectoral region or beyond, except for a median zone of varying width in the throat, corresponding to an area in which the feather-bases are frequently white in adult erythrophthalmus (and the entire feathers white in ocai X erythrophthalmus hybrids).
The California Towhee, Pipilo crissalis, is a bird of the family Emberizidae, native to the coastal regions of the western Oregon and California in the United States and Baja California in Mexico.
Within the group, there has been debate about whether the distinction between this species and the similar Canyon Towhee, Pipilo fuscus, should be at the specific or subspecific level.
The two populations are quite isolated from each other, and molecular genetics seems to have settled the matter in favour of two distinct species for the present.
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