Usually when I hear some rustling in the leaves and see a flash of rust-colored feathers, I assume that it is an American Robin. I was delighted last Friday at Huntley Meadows Park to be wrong in my assumption. When I zoomed in on the bird that had attracted my attention, I realized that it was an Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus), a species that I see a lot less frequently than the American Robin,
This colorful little bird proved to be quite skittish and I managed to capture only a few shots of it before it flew deeper into the underbrush. Fortunately I was able to capture enough details that you can see the bird’s beautiful markings and coloration.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Thank you. Such a lovely bird. I used to see them, very occasionally, here in NH but haven’t in a long time. I miss them.
Thanks, Ann. I think we may have towhees year round here in Northern Virginia, but I consider myself lucky to see one or two of them in any given year.
Beautiful capture, Mike. You’ll ‘find’ him more from his song than sight. He’s a shy litt
Thanks, Mitzy. I guess I will have to learn his song, because most of the time when I see a towhee, he is almost buried in the brush. There are only a few birds that I can identify by hearing them and, alas, the towhee is not yet one of them.
Once you hear his song, you’ll not ever forget it. Have fun! They say Roger Tory Peters
Oh, wow, Mike! I’ve never seen this bird before! Your pictures should be in magazines. This is a stunning capture. The colors are amazing!
Thanks so much for your encouraging words. We really are blessed where I live to have an abundance of wildlife. We are sort of midway between the north and the south, so we get some species that migrate through our area and others that migrate to our area and stay with us all winter. My challenge is to find them and photograph them as well as I can. As you can see from this photo, many birds are not exactly in the open and I often have to bend and twist to get a mostly unobstructed shot. In this case, I was able to get a clear view of the head of the towhee even though part of its tail was hidden.
It’s my pleasure! I truly enjoy your site and photography ~it’s a blessing when I’m able to be here. Today I was able to visit a nearby conservation area. It’s rather quiet other than the beautiful geese, swans, and ducks on the water. Your efforts on the challenges are paying off with these incredible shots (it requires a lot of flexibility!).
I love God’s gift of morning chirps.☕️☕️
Fabulous portrait, Mike! I have never seen one of these birds in real life. It’s really lovely.
Thanks, Laura. One of my objectives in having a blog is to share with others some of the cool things that I observe that they may not see themselves for a variety of reasons. It’s interesting for me that the more I go out the more sensitive I become to my surroundings. I often wonder, though, how many things I miss that are right in front of me. 🙂
Beautiful bird.
Amazing Bird.
A beauty!!