Today, in El Paso County (west of I-25) I observed 3 male spotted towhees engaged in behavior I have neither seen nor heard of before. I have not had a chance to review Birds of NA yet for this, but a quick Google search did not find anything.
In a short walk down a sand-bar willow stream, I saw 15 male spotted towhees, no females. Most males were signing. In one area, scrub oak of course, 3 males were engaged in wing display and crouched running (much like the females do when they leave the nest). The wing display was the kind I saw on a genus of flycatchers in Peru. Where they raised one wing (only one at a time) and extended it. Then after a moment or two, returned the wing to a folded position. They would sometimes then go directly to displaying the opposite wing. During this they were either stationary or running as if in a distraction display (sort of like a killdeer broken wing display - but whereas the killdeer seems to drag it on the ground, their wings were not dragged on the ground). In addition, they would sometimes pick up a fascicle (combined unit of 2-3) of dead ponderosa needles and run with them in a crouched posture much like I have seen females of this species run off the nest when disturbed. All three individuals were engaged in this or engaged in chasing one another. All while calling, or singing. Quite a sight for about 5 minutes. And all at my feet. Jeff J Jones Teller County --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Join us at the 2009 Convention in Alamosa: http://cfo-link.org/convention/index.php You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.as/group/cobirds?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
