One of my favorite birds of the Passerines is the Eastern Towhee. We have a pair around our home almost every year. They like to kick around in the leaves on the wood floor and, while they are not overly secretive, they are not all that easy to spot. The male looks kind of like a robin in a tuxedo. They have a dark red eye, although that is not often easy to see. The female's pattern is similar to the male, but in brown instead of black. They must mate for life because I always see them as a pair, although one year, I think the female may have died because the male spent most of the latter part of the season by himself. They will come to the bird feeder, but only to supplement their diet, unlike cardinals which seem to spend an inordinate amount of time at the feeder. Until recent times, they were known as the rufous-sided towhee, but the species has been split into two different closely-associated species, the other being the spotted towhee.
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