Verification of Unusual
Sight Record
For Utah
Rec. # 2002-18
| Common name: |
Canyon towhee |
| Scientific name: | Pipilo fuscus |
| Date: | Tue, May 21, 2002 |
| Time: | 9am |
| Length of time observed: | 1 minute |
| Number: | 1 |
| Age: | adult |
| Sex: | ? |
| Location: | E side of Jordan river, roughly 1/2 mile S of 4800 S, just N of the foot bridge |
| County: | Salt Lake |
| Latilong: | 40 degrees 39' 46" N 111 degrees 54' 35" W |
| Elevation: | 4200 feet |
| Distance to bird: | 20 feet |
| Optical equipment: | Nikon 8X32 Superior E binoculars |
| Weather: | clear, just after a rain |
| Light Conditions: | excellent |
| Detailed description of bird: |
The size and shape of a towhee, with the towhee's long tail. The bird was
brownish grey with a rufous cap. It lacked the white throat of a Green-tailed
towhee. It had the central breast-spot of a Canyon towhee. Reservations: I did not notice two field marks of the Canyon Towhee: the dark "necklace" and the rufous undertail coverts. But I wasn't looking for them either. While the bird was in view, I was trying to make it into a Green-tailed towee, so I was concentrating on its throat and the color of its tail feathers. |
| Song or call & method of delivery: | |
| Behavior: | It was foraging on trail when I first arrived, then flew to a low branch, then flew off into the willows. |
| Habitat: | Riparian. |
| Similar
species and how were they eliminated: |
Green-tailed towhee: had central breast spot, lacked white throat. California
towhee: even farther out of range, cap was too rufous, face and throat not
rufous enough. Female brown-headed cowbird: bill shape, long tail, rufous cap, lack of streaks on breast, had central spot on breast. |
| Previous experience with this & similar species: | I've seen Green-tailed towhees many times in the foothills of this area. I saw lots of California towhees in southern California last month, I've seen Canyon towhees in New Mexico and in southern Arizona. My most recent sighting of a Canyon towhee, would probably have been two years ago, on my trip to southern AZ. |
| References consulted: | Sibley guide, National Geographic Guide, 3rd ed. |
| Description from: | From memory |
| Observer: | Alan Rogers |
| Observer's address: |
1826 Logan Ave, Salt Lake City, UT 84108 |
| Observer's e-mail address: | rogers@anthro.utah.edu |
| Other
observers who independently identified this bird: |
|
| Date prepared: | 24 May 2002 (General Public) |
| Additional material: | |