Pipilo maculatus
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The spotted towhee (Pipilo maculatus) is a large New World sparrow. The taxonomy of the towhees has been debated in recent decades, and until 1995 this bird and the eastern towhee were considered a single species, then named rufous-sided towhee. Another outdated name for the spotted towhee is the Oregon towhee (particularly for the subspecies Pipilo maculatus oregonus). The call may be harsher and more varied than for the eastern towhee.
The spotted towhee is a large New World sparrow, roughly the same size as a gray catbird. It has a long, dark, fan-shaped tail with white corners on the end. It has a round body (similar to New World sparrows) with bright red eyes and dull pink legs. The spotted towhee is between 17 cm (6.7 in) and 21 cm (8.3 in) long, and weighs in at between 33 g (1.2 oz) and 49 g (1.7 oz). It has a wingspan of 28 cm (11 in).
Adult males have a generally darker head, upper body and tail with a white belly, rufous sides, white spots on their back and white wing bars. Females look similar but are dark brown and grey instead of black. The spotted towhee has white spots on its primary and secondary feathers; the eastern towhee is the same in terms of... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guadalupe Mountains National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Zion National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Channel Islands National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Badlands National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Grand Canyon National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 7 | Big Bend National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Yosemite National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Olympic National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 11 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 12 | Joshua Tree National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 13 | Cumbres de Monterrey National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 14 | Redwood National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 15 | Pacific Rim National Park Reserve | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 16 | Death Valley National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 17 | Rocky Mountain National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 18 | Grand Teton National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 19 | Saguaro National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 20 | Glacier National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 21 | Yellowstone National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vancouver | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 2 | Seattle | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Portland | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Sacramento | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Denver | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Salt Lake City | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | San Antonio | 🇺🇸 United States |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Spotted Towhee sighting in Great Bear Rainforest on a given day, based on 992 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 48th most-seen of the 239 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Spotted Towhee in Great Bear Rainforest on a given day, against about 10% in June to September, the lowest months. That is one of Great Bear Rainforest's driest months, with about 140 mm of rain against 480 mm in November.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Spotted Towhee sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
11th of 21
Of the 21 parks where we can rate Spotted Towhee sightings, Great Bear Rainforest ranks 11th at about 20%. The best odds are in Guadalupe Mountains National Park (United States, about 70%), Zion National Park (United States, about 60%) and Channel Islands National Park (United States, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Passerellidae
The closest relatives of the Spotted Towhee that you can see in Great Bear Rainforest (family Passerellidae, New World Sparrows) are Song Sparrow (about 60%), Dark-eyed Junco (about 40%) and White-crowned Sparrow (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Spotted Towhee is recorded against all the birds logged in Great Bear Rainforest (992 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
