{"id":54064,"date":"2018-09-11T05:00:27","date_gmt":"2018-09-11T11:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=54064"},"modified":"2025-10-26T06:40:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T11:40:18","slug":"roadside-green-tailed-towhee-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/09\/11\/roadside-green-tailed-towhee-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"Roadside Green-tailed Towhee Photos"},"content":{"rendered":"

I haven’t heard Green-tailed Towhees singing in quite a while now because the males aren’t singing on their breeding territories but occasionally I still hear them calling.<\/p>\n

Soon they will be winging their way south to spend the winter in southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico.<\/p>\n

I know I will miss them when they are gone.<\/p>\n

\"Green-tailedGreen-tailed Towhee next to a gravel road – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 1250, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Two days ago I was able to photograph a Green-tailed Towhee foraging next to a gravel road up in a Wasatch Mountain Canyon.<\/p>\n

Getting these birds out in the open can be a challenge so I was excited that this towhee was in the clear.<\/p>\n

When I look at this photo closely the towhee appears to have grit, not a seed, in its bill. Some seed eating birds do consume grit to aid in digestion but I can’t be positive about what was in its bill even when I blew the image up.<\/p>\n

I should mention I wouldn’t normally have been at this high of an ISO but I had bumped it up earlier to get more shutter speed when I was photographing a juvenile Osprey and had forgotten to bump it back down.<\/p>\n

It didn’t hurt my image quality to have the ISO that high though.<\/p>\n

\"Green-tailedGreen-tailed Towhee foraging near a road – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 1250, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This Green-tailed Towhee<\/span><\/a> foraged along the gravel road long enough for me to take 51 photos of it before it disappeared into the grasses at the side of the road.<\/p>\n

Some folks might not like the setting, it doesn’t bother me at all.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Green-tailed Towhee photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two days ago I was able to photograph a Green-tailed Towhee foraging next to a gravel road up in a Wasatch Mountain Canyon, getting these birds out in the open can be a challenge so I was excited that this towhee was in the clear. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":161815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,2212,4594,26,773],"tags":[4004,3940,4136,6790,5292,3905,5476,4069,2303,2326,855,4195,5908,4854],"class_list":["post-54064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-green-tailed-towhees","category-morgan-county","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-adult","tag-canyon","tag-foraging","tag-gravel","tag-gravel-road","tag-green-tailed-towhee","tag-grit","tag-mountains","tag-pipilo-chlorurus","tag-road","tag-sparrow","tag-sparrows","tag-towhee","tag-towhees"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/green-tailed-towhee-road-mia-mcpherson-6083.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-e40","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":102676,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/05\/27\/green-tailed-towhee-singing-from-a-treetop\/","url_meta":{"origin":54064,"position":0},"title":"Green-tailed Towhee Singing From A Treetop","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I was delighted to observe, hear and photograph a beautiful Green-tailed Towhee singing from a treetop two days ago high in the Wasatch Mountains.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Treetop Green-tailed Towhee singing, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/green-tailed-towhee-singing-tree-top-mia-mcpherson-9448.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/green-tailed-towhee-singing-tree-top-mia-mcpherson-9448.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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ID","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/bird-identification\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Green-tailed and Spotted Towhee comparison, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/green-tailed-and-spotted-towhee-young-mia-mcpherson-4203.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/green-tailed-and-spotted-towhee-young-mia-mcpherson-4203.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/green-tailed-and-spotted-towhee-young-mia-mcpherson-4203.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/green-tailed-and-spotted-towhee-young-mia-mcpherson-4203.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/green-tailed-towhee-immature-low-light-mia-mcpherson-7739.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/green-tailed-towhee-immature-low-light-mia-mcpherson-7739.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/green-tailed-towhee-immature-low-light-mia-mcpherson-7739.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/green-tailed-towhee-immature-low-light-mia-mcpherson-7739.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":106065,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/09\/10\/young-green-tailed-towhee-in-a-serviceberry\/","url_meta":{"origin":54064,"position":3},"title":"Young Green-tailed Towhee In A Serviceberry","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I found this young Green-tailed Towhee perched in a serviceberry high in a mountain canyon on a sunny morning on the last day of July this year.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Young Green-tailed Towhee posing in a serviceberry, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/green-tailed-towhee-young-serviceberry-mia-mcpherson-9984.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/green-tailed-towhee-young-serviceberry-mia-mcpherson-9984.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Green-tailed Towhee on a old weathered stump, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/green-tailed-towhee-young-stump-mia-mcpherson-1507.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/green-tailed-towhee-young-stump-mia-mcpherson-1507.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/green-tailed-towhee-young-stump-mia-mcpherson-1507.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/green-tailed-towhee-young-stump-mia-mcpherson-1507.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Green-tailed Towhees spend their winters in the southern most parts of the U.S. and in Mexico and I miss seeing a hearing them while they are away.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Green-tailed Towhee portrait, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/green-tailed-towhee-close-up-mia-mcpherson-2751.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/green-tailed-towhee-close-up-mia-mcpherson-2751.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/green-tailed-towhee-close-up-mia-mcpherson-2751.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/green-tailed-towhee-close-up-mia-mcpherson-2751.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}