Most of the morning while I was outside birding, I kept hearing an eastern towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) calling. I hadn’t seen one in a while, so I was really hoping that it would come to visit one of the feeding stations. These birds are very shy and spend most of their time hidden in the understory of the woods, so it’s not unusual to hear them and never see them. I was actually almost done watching at the second station when I spotted what looked like a fledgling towhee in the brush. I was so intent on watching the fledgling (who was not at all cooperative in posing for a photo) that I jumped when I heard the parent bird calling very near by. When I looked in that direction, there was the male parent, perched on a low branch about 10 feet away. He was intently staring at the branch, and seconds after I took this shot he grabbed a caterpillar. Then he flew to the brush where the fledgling was hiding and fed it the caterpillar. He then returned to the branch and carefully watched as the fledgling ventured just a short way out of the underbrush and grabbed a mealworm. It quickly disappeared back into the woods, but the male stayed put, and a few seconds later the fledgling emerged again. This time it came further out and ate several mealworms before retreating again. This was repeated several times before both of them retreated into the woods and disappeared. Although the parent didn’t hunt or feed the fledgling again while I watched, he patiently waited and watched intently for any signs of trouble. I was surprised to see an obvious fledgling so late in the summer, but its father was being a very good parent.