Western Florida - “White-eyed” Eastern Towhee, and other New Critters

     This past weekend my wife and I traveled to the Tampa area of Florida.  We spent nearly a week there to visit some family and to just get away.  It was no surprise to us that it was going to be hot, but damn, it was very hot.  I did not get in much birding, so I only added a few new year birds during this trip.  A few weeks earlier, when Hurricane Debby passed, I likely could have seen sooty terns, brown noddies and other tropical specials that had been pushed in along the coast.  While we were there, two South American rarities returned to the Sunshine State: a large-billed tern and a gray gull.  I had to pass on both birds because Florida is as big as it is hot.  From our hotel, the tern was at least a three-hour drive to the south, and the gull was at least a six-hour drive to the north.

All the other birds reported on eBird in my general area were already on my life and Florida lists.  This trip I was intent on finding a subspecies that has eluded me on every previous visit.  Throughout most of its range in the east, the eastern towhee has red eyes.  I did not know, until a friend told me a few years ago, that eastern towhees in Florida have white eyes.  According to eBird, I have seen eastern towhees 13 times in Florida but never noticed that they were of the subspecies pipilo erythrophthalmus alleni/rileyi.  The last time I listed a towhee in Florida was back in July 2019.  Probably just before I became aware of the different eye colors.  Since then, every trip I’ve made to the southern peninsular state I have kept an eye and ear out for towhees but couldn’t find a single one.  

This time I focused in on them.  I checked eBird towhee sightings near my hotel and found that some had been listed earlier in the summer at a hotspot just down the road from where we were staying.  I went there mid-morning on Sunday and walked a short path bordered by shrubs, thickets and mid-sized trees.  I figured this would be the most likely habitat to hold a towhee.  Not many birds were around, mostly mockingbirds, mourning doves and common ground doves.  After a few trips up and down the path I finally heard a towhee call.  I waited as long as I could, pacing the shadeless path, but it never came out for me.  The heat kept the bird in the foliage and sent me back to an air-conditioned car.

An eastern towhee in New Jersey.  © S. Weiss
Pipilo erythrophthalmus erythrophthalmus piercing red eyes and are the most common form of eastern towhee, found mostly from the Carolinas up to the north.  

On Tuesday morning I tried one more time to find that bird before continuing with other plans for the day.  I got there an hour earlier, yet the heat wasn’t any better.  This time I heard two towhees, maybe even a third, call from both sides of the path.  I waited them out again, but they refused to show themselves.  As I was giving up and walking away (Zirlin’s Birding Rule #2), I heard a bird sing; a song I couldn’t quickly identify.  I know towhees in New Jersey make many different sounds, and I thought this just might be one too.  I doubled back trying to pinpoint where the singing was coming from before it stopped.  Finally, there it was near the top of a tree!  Had it not been singing, I would never have seen it.  I grabbed some photos of my white-eyed prize and headed for cooler temperatures.

"White-eyed" eastern towhee in Florida.  © S. Weiss
Pipilo erythrophthalmus alleni/rileyi are non-migratory eastern towhees that live in Florida and southern Georgia.  They have white/yellow/pale eyes.  

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Some other new critters I saw on this trip were a Brazilian skipper, a dainty sulphur butterfly and a Dorantes longtail butterfly; a red saddlebags dragonfly, a pin-tailed pondhawk dragonfly and a band-winged dragonlet dragonfly; a Florida fighting conch; Cuban tree frogs, and whitewashed rabdotus land snails.

Dorantes longtail (left) and dainty sulphur (right).  © S. Weiss

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Gulf fritillary.  © S. Weiss

Red saddlebags (left) and pin-tailed pondhawk (right).  © S. Weiss

White-washed rabdotus (left) and Florida fighting conch (right).  © S. Weiss

Cuban tree frogs.  © S. Weiss
Cuban tree frogs are considered an invasive species yet are abundant at night in Florida.

Florida soft shellturtle.  © S. Weiss







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