CALIFORNIA TOWHEE Pipilo crissalis

Description 8-10" Uniform gray-brown above and below, with buff or rust-colored undertail coverts.

Habitat Shady underbrush, open woods, pinyon-juniper woodlands, and suburban gardens.

Nesting 3 or 4 bluish-green eggs, lightly spotted or scrawled with blackish-brown markings, in a cup nest placed low in a bush or young tree.

Range Resident in coastal and foothill chaparral from Oregon to southern Baja California.

Discussion The California Towhee is easily overlooked because it often forages quietly among chaparral bushes or garden cover. Although its range in the chaparral overlaps during winter with that of the Spotted Towhee, this bird lives in low scrub, whereas the Spotted keeps to scrub oaks and other taller "forest edge" areas.