Hopefully this discussion will inspire rather than discourage folks to give
more scrutiny to birds at their feeders. Towhees are on the move right now.
This seems the most likely time for an Eastern Towhee to show up in western
Oregon. I live 38 miles due north of Paul and had a similar experience in the
past two days. The bird in this photo is a second year male. Note the
reddish-brown, not bright red, eye. This applies to females as well. The
plumage portrayed in field guides is AFTER second year birds. We tend to think
of song birds acquiring adult plumage quite rapidly, but not in the case of
towhees. Likewise, alula molt is often out of sequence with both body molt and
wing molt in some species of bird. There have been photos on Obol before of
very intriguing towhees, where l suspect they were second year males. Dave
recently referred to molt as a "coma inducing subject". And l confess to having
an aversion to it the first 48 or 49 years of birding. It is too complicated
for field guides to devote much space to. In fact, it's so complicated that
birdbanders continue to learn about it throughout their careers. Today's
digital technology offers a fabulous supplement to birds in the hand. If you
take photos , post them on eBird reports. I guess you're allowed 10 per list.
Include not just rare birds, or perfect adult males like in the field guides.
Peter Pyle is more interested in the scruffy birds, the ones in transition.
Open wing shots are especially useful. Molt is an essential aspect of
being a bird and knowledge of it often plays a pivotal role in correct lD. If
some one's at a loss at what to give you for a present, suggest the new edition
of Pyle. It contains more information on molt than most of us will ever absorb,
but you will find it regularly helpful for the rest of your birding life. I'm
struggling to think of an analogous subject where the learning process is
similar to understanding molt. Nearly all humans master a spoken language in
the first three or four years of life. All languages are incredibly complex
systems , yet we generally take this accomplishment for granted. The learning
curve for our mother tongue is steep and soon flattens out. Learning about molt
is a shallow slope that never flattens out.Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy
smartphone
