FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Green-tailed Towhee in Elizabethton - 1957

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

GREEN-TAILED TOWHEE IN ELIZABETHTON, TENN. - About

9:00 a.m. March 24 [1957] while observing several White-throated Sparrows, from

the kitchen window, in the vicinity of my bird traps, a bird of entirely

different characteristics, attracted by attention. It was sleek looking, olive

greenish; somewhat larger than the sparrows and feeding in the door of

the trap. Immediately, I called Mrs. Herndon to check my observation.

The bird was about ten feet from our eyes as we looked down on the solid

reddish-brown crown, gray face, neck and sides and olive-greenish back,

wings and tail. No streaks were visible on the breast or sides and we could

not see the white throat from our observation point. It continued to feed

in and in front of the trap door, scratching among the leaves with both feet

simultaneously, as is characteristic of towhees, for a few minutes before it

flew away. By this time we were positive it was a Green-tailed Towhee

(Oberholseri chlorfdra).



About five hours later it returned to the vicinity of the trap and was

observed in a rhododendron shrub, about a foot above the trap. Almost

immediately it hopped down on the ground and began to feed in the

door of the trap. It was frightened into the trap and captured. It was

transferred to a gathering trap for further observation and study by members

of the Elizabethton Chapter of TOS. It was a life record for all of our

members. It was not in bright spring plumage as the colors tended toward

the drab or dirty side. The throat patch was not conspicuous nor was it

pure white, although easily discernible when in the hand. Two small white

patches were on either side of the larger white throat patch and separated

from it by a fine gray line. The breast was ashy gray and the belly a dirty

white with under tail coverts a pale light buff. The inner veins of wing

and tail feathers were yellowish olive-green. The edge of the folded wing

showed a thin line of golden yellow. The irises were a rich cinnamon

brown, not Very different from the! color of the crown. It gave two different

and distinct notes - the distress calls were a series of high pitched squeaks

and the other similar to the "meow" of a kitten, usually only once but

sometimes twice.



After thorough inspection the bird was banded and released. It was

next observed on April 1 and almost daily until April 26 when it was last

seen. It fed on cracked corn and scratch feed placed on the ground and

was observed most frequently, early in the morning although it appeared

at various times during the day, even in the late afternoon.



This appears to be the third Tennessee record. The first was reported

by R. Demett Smith Jr. on the Christmas Count for Dec. 21, 1951, also on

12-23 and 12-25 (see THE MIGRANT, 23. 68, 70, 71 and 76, 1952). The second

was on the occasion of the 1956 Christmas Count at Memphis, by Mrs.

Burford. (see Notes on Christmas Count, this issue). Other records of its

occurrence east of the Mississippi River are: one at Northampton, Mass.

from late Dec. 1946 to mid-March 1947 (AUDUBON FIELD NOTES, May

1947:125); one taken in Charleston County, S. Car., Jan. 18, 1921 and recorded

in the AUK. 38:1921, 278 and another secured in Virginia in 1903.

These latter references were taken from "South Carolina Bird Life" by

Alexander Sprunt, Jr., and E. Burnham Chamberlain, page 522, 1949.

---LEE R. HERNDON, 1533 Burgie Place, Elizabethton, Tenn.

(from The Migrant, Vol. 28, No. 1, 1957, page 15)