What does the Eastern Towhee song sound like?
Play the real Eastern Towhee song, the "drink-your-tea", and learn what to listen for.
What the Eastern Towhee song sounds like
A loud, musical series of notes often rendered as 'drink-your-tea' or 'drink your teeeee'. It typically starts with one or two short introductory notes ("drink") and ends with a fast trill or high-pitched note ("tea!"). Males sing from elevated perches within brushy habitats, especially in spring and early summer. Each male's song can vary slightly, but the pattern of a few clear notes followed by a trill is consistent.
“drink-your-tea”
How to find the bird singing it
Dense brushy areas, woodland edges, overgrown fields, and forest edges with thick understory.
- Bold Coloration: Males have a jet-black head, throat, and upperparts, rufous-orange sides, and a white belly. Females have the same pattern but the black is replaced with warm brown.
- Red Eyes: Both sexes have red eyes (bright ruby-red iris) in most of their range. In some southern populations (particularly Florida), the eyes can be straw-white or yellowish-white.
- White in Tail: Long tail which is frequently flicked. The tail is black (or brown in female) with white outer tail feathers that flash distinct white corners when the bird flies or spreads its tail.
When you'll hear it
Winter
In winter, Eastern Towhees vacate the coldest parts of their range (e.g., New England and the upper Midwest), but remain year-round in the mid-Atlantic, South, and coastal areas. In winter they often join mixed-species flocks of sparrows, scratching for seeds on the ground under shrubs. Males and females generally stay in dense cover and may become more silent, though they still give call notes.
Spring
Migrants return to breeding areas by April (earlier in the South). Males quickly establish territories in shrubby, overgrown areas and start singing their "drink-your-tea" songs from visible perches atop bushes. Nest-building begins in late spring, with females constructing nests hidden under brush piles or thick shrubs.
Summer
Prime breeding season. Eastern Towhees are nesting and raising young throughout the summer. They may have two broods, especially in southern parts of their range. Males sing frequently through early summer, tapering off later. Both parents feed the fledglings. You'll see adults carrying insects to and from the ground as they provision nests.
Fall
By fall, young towhees have dispersed. Many towhees from the northern range begin migrating south in September and October. Those that stay become more focused on feeding – they will switch to more seeds and berries as insects become scarce. You might observe them in leaf litter under berry bushes. Their vocalizations decrease to mostly calls as the singing season ends.
Don’t confuse it with
Birds whose song gets mistaken for this one. Play them back to back.
Spotted Towhee
The western counterpart of the Eastern Towhee. Visually very similar in having black (or brown) upperparts with rufous sides, but Spotted Towhees have conspicuous white spots on their back and wing feathers. Spotted Towhee males also have white spots or streaks on their back, whereas Eastern Towhees have solid-colored backs with no white spotting. Range is separate (Spotted in the West, Eastern in the East) except for some plains states where their ranges meet. In overlapping areas, differences in plumage (spots) and slight differences in song can distinguish them.
Brown Thrasher
A larger bird (11-12 inches) that also skulks in brushy areas and has rufous upperparts. However, Brown Thrashers have a very long tail, a streaked (not clear white) breast, and a distinctive yellow eye. Their bill is longer and curved. They often dig in leaf litter similar to towhees, but their size and shape (slender with a much longer tail) sets them apart. Also, Brown Thrashers have two white wing bars, which towhees lack.