Prevost's Ground Sparrow vs White-throated Towhee

Prevost's Ground Sparrow

Melozone biarcuata

Small31 gShrubland

Prevost's ground sparrow is on average 15 cm long and weighs 28 g. The adult has a stubby dark-grey bill, unstreaked olive-brown upperparts, a rufous crown and mainly white underparts. Young birds are browner above, have yellower underparts, and a duller indistinct head pattern. It has a simple head pattern in which the rufous of the crown extends down the sides of the neck as a half collar behind the white face. Voice: Calls include a thin tsit or a clearer psee. The male's song, given from a hidden perch in the wet season, is a whistled pst’t’t’t peer peer peer whee whee whee.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Diego Blanco · CC0

White-throated Towhee

Melozone albicollis

Small46 gShrubland

The white-throated towhee is a large sparrow with a long tail, 18.5 to 22.5 cm (7.3 to 8.9 in) long and weighing 42 to 50 g (1.5 to 1.8 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a brown crown and nape. They have a white supercilium to the eye, some whitish below the eye, and a blackish stripe on the cheek. The rest of their face is brown above and chestnut below. Their upperparts and tail are brown. Their wing is mostly brown with white on the median coverts that shows as two wing bars. Their chin is white and their throat rusty cinnamon with white under it. Voice: The white-throated towhee's song is described as "very high warbling...strident in places, accelerating and rising in pitch in phrases includes --pirrup-pirrup-pirrup--". Another description is "a series of chipping notes with one or more introductory notes, chik chik tchu-chu-chu-chu chi-i-ir". Its call is "a slurred metallic churenk".

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: datadan · CC BY 4.0

Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Prevost's Ground Sparrow and White-throated Towhee.