Western Bird Guide: Birds of the Rockies and West to the Pacific

by Charles K. Reed

OREGON TOWHEE.

588b. Pipilo maculatus oregonus. 8 inches.

This family are all ground birds, and are usually found scratching among the leaves for their food supply of seeds and insects. This is a much darker bird than his eastern relative. The females are marked much the same as the males, replacing the black with a brown. They build their nest on or near the ground, of twigs, grass and with a finer lining of grass, and usually it is well concealed in bunches of grass or under some brush pile. They lay four or five eggs of a pale gray or white, much spotted with brown (.95 × .75).