Help me attract towhees . . .

Last summer we had a Towhee at one of our feeders. I only saw one bird a few times at our cabin, which looks like it is right on the western edge of the spring/summer range for Eastern Towhees. What can I do to encourge him to come back this year? We have a feeding area set up at the edge of a wooded area with oaks and maples-we offer quite a smorgasboard of different seeds and suet as well as fresh water. Any suggestions are much appreciated!
Thanks-
Deb

Hi Deb, Planting shrubs that berry in different seasons if the best way to get a better variety of birds.Viburnums,Winterberrys etc. are shrubs that birds love.

No one can promise that a Towhee will come back though.

Heres a great thread from a long while ago w/ pics that should be a great help.


http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/682674/

Pelle :-)

And make sure there's no cats around! Towhees are ground-dwelling birds, and so very vulnerable to cats.

Resin

Thanks! I should be able to find some fruit bearing plant that will grow back there-it's shady but I should be able to find something . . .

There used to be a cat next door but it's been gone for a year or so. She used to stalk my feeder birds but never cuaght any that I know of.
Deb

Oh, I just had an idea. Here at home we have a goosebery plant that the birds love-it's growing well in almost full shade. I've tried to stay with more native type plants, but I think a gooseberry or currant would work out just fine. Maybe some wintergreen (Gaultheria) would be a good addition, too-that has berries, doesn't it?

Both excellent choices, particularly the gooseberry, as it is thorny so gives very good protection.

Resin

They seem to like to hang around our holly bushes too. And in scruffy hedging.

And ours are ground feeders--I don't think I have ever seen them up on a feeder or even on our deck...I spread out a little millet and a few black oil sunflower seeds for them near some 'bird's nest spruces' by the front walk where I'm thinking they nest....they seem to like that.

More about towhees: http://www.birdhouses101.com/towhee.asp

I have lots of towhees here in the woods. I read that they like fruit. While they are ground feeders, I find that if I mix a little seed with dried fruit in with the black oil sunflowers, they seem to come around a lot more (but never on the feeders--they are always flitting around in the brush). It may just be the small mixed seeds that they like.

I found this on their diet (circa 1926!), which makes sense in my Ohio environs:

The food of the chewink [Who knew? Coo] consists of a great variety of items, the bird taking apparently almost everything unearthed in its rummaging of the forest floor. About three-tenths of the food is animal matter and seven-tenths vegetable. Of the latter portion seeds, mast, and wild fruits are the important items. The mast consists chiefly of acorns; the favorite seeds are those of ragweed, foxtail grass, smartweed, and dock; and the fruits that are most frequently taken are those of strawberry, huckleberry, blueberry, bayberry, and blackberry. The towhee has very rarely been observed to feed on any agricultural product.

The entire site is pretty interesting on the towhee--I might have to videotape them now.
http://birdsbybent.com/ch31-40/towhee.html

Thanks for the great links!
Deb

Coo! OH! I love "BIRDS BY BENT" !

Isn't it just chock full of lots of details about so many of my/our backyard birds?! (-;

Otherwise known as: "Life Histories of North American Birds", selected from the hundreds of species biographies assembled and written by Arthur Cleveland Bent and his collaborators and published in a twenty-one volume series between 1919 and 1968 by the United States Government Printing Office.

http://birdsbybent.com/about.html

I hope Pelle puts a link to it in the Sticky thread. (Thanks for mentioning BBB. I thought I was the only person who read all those factoids about the birds!)

I just found BBB, did a search on "towhee food" before I made too much of a fool of myself discussing their preferred food...and boy did I learn alot. Wow, I could waste some time on that site.

Tobasco--Been looking at past threads, wondering if you ever attracted the Pileateds? I know we have some near me, but mostly I just hear them. I used to see and hear them all the time while trail riding in woods around Kansas City, so I think I know their drum. They get really mad when the horses come near their roosts, it's hilarious. Bunch of monkeys in the treetops cussing us out.

The first time I saw a Pileated was magical. It was the one year anniversary of the death of my trail riding friend's father. His favorite bird was the Pileated. This one followed us for 15 minutes on the trail. My friend was so grateful.

Now, it's so frustrating to hear them (only their drum, never their call, but I have had two sitings so I know they are Pileateds) in the summer but never see them. The valley isn't very wide, but there's no big, old wood on this side. We do have mild squirrel and raccoon issues, so that may preclude a large suet feeder. On the other hand, my trail riding buddy is coming to visit next week--she seems to attract the Pileateds.

coo, wonderful story about your Pileated on the trail. Very touching and I can see how the happening would mean so much to your friend. I hope you have some good luck spotting a pair during her visit!

In every previous year here at this house (4 years) we had pileateds in our yard and at the feeders pretty much daily during the winter. For the Christmas Audubon backyard bird count last year we had three at a time at our feeders (waiting in line). That was the first time for 3 at a time and we were amazed at the good timing with the CBC. Normally I had two pileateds who would come to my window, not 3 feet from where I sit, to eat the suet from the acrylic feeder stuck to the window pane every day at 7:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

This winter we spotted Pileateds just 2 times in the yard and never at the feeders. I think they must be different Pileateds from our others--these were very skitterish. In the windstorms in the past year or so, several large trees have come down and maybe they were our pileateds' nest trees...I don't know....and ours found some other place to live.

I read a write up on the Ohio Ornithological site about 'Forest Succession' and how forests maturation affects the wildlife that inhabit the area. Maybe that's what we are seeing before our eyes here in our woods...trees come down, pileateds move on, other birds move in that like scrubby woods instead (cardinals, other downy woodpeckers, bluebirds)...more sunlight becomes available, saplings grow up and become big old trees and Pileateds move back in. The cycle of life.

Pileateds were very rare here in Ohio back in the 1960's but as the abandoned farms went back to woods the Pileateds found adequate habitat and now the population is thriving. Not so, the Red-headed woodpecker which likes open (corn) fields and oak trees and streams and so are losing habitat to civilization. We never see Red-headeds at our house.

Well, too much information, I'm sure. But interesting to me. Always learning something on the 'net. And to think none of this info would be available without the WWW.

Have fun looking for Pileateds. If I see any I will send them your way! t.

Thanks, T! Good info. I'd heard that red headeds were becoming more rare, but saw many on Kansas trails. Makes sense, now, as there are lots of cornfields in Kansas. Sad that they aren't here, but then again I never saw a towhee in Kansas City area.

Well, they do see the Red-headeds in fields along I-71 up to Columbus and a few other wide-open places, so all is not lost for them around here...

Cold day and a fairly good one for the feeders today. We have been out of town for a week and our son let the feeders go empty so we have to build up our woodpecker population again. I'm so mad at him! Those were the last words out of my mouth when I left for the airport! "Keep the feeders filled, please!" "Of course (not)", he answered! Hah, hah on me, I guess!

Oh, well. Makes me feel needed! by the birds, anyway!