Pipilo erythrophthalmus
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
The eastern towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus), also known as chewink, joree, or joree bird, is a large New World sparrow. The taxonomy of the towhees has been under debate in recent decades, and formerly this bird and the spotted towhee were considered a single species, the rufous-sided towhee.
Their breeding habitat is brushy areas across eastern North America. They nest either low in bushes or on the ground under shrubs. Northern birds migrate to the southern United States. One of this species was recorded as a vagrant to western Europe, a single bird in Great Britain in 1966.
The song is a short drink your teeeeea lasting around one second, starting with a sharp call ("drink!") and ending with a short trill "teeeeea". The name "towhee" is onomatopoeic description of one of the towhee's most common calls, a short, two-part call rising in pitch and sometimes also called a "chewink" call.
The eastern towhee was described by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae and given the binomial name Fringilla erythrophthalma. This species is now placed in the genus Pipilo that was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shenandoah National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Great Smoky Mountains National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Congaree National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Point Pelee National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | Everglades National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Riding Mountain National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 8 | Acadia National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Big Cypress National Preserve | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Washington | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | New York City | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Baltimore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Philadelphia | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Toronto | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 7 | Boston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Detroit | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Dallas | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Minneapolis [Saint Paul] | 🇺🇸 United States |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report an Eastern Towhee sighting in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, based on 1,603 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 24th most-seen of the 173 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May and June
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report an Eastern Towhee in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, against about 20% in March and August–October, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Eastern 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.
2nd of 9
Of the 9 parks where we can rate Eastern Towhee sightings, Great Smoky Mountains National Park ranks 2nd at about 30%. The best odds are in Shenandoah National Park (United States, about 50%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Passerellidae
The closest relatives of the Eastern Towhee that you can see in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (family Passerellidae, New World Sparrows) are Song Sparrow (about 40%), Chipping Sparrow (about 40%) and Dark-eyed Junco (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Eastern Towhee is recorded against all the birds logged in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (1,603 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.
