I had thought a couple of times recently that there were now two Eastern towhees (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) making my backyard their home. What I’ve seen have just been flashes of another bird in the underbrush when the male was around. Then, finally last week, the beautiful little female showed herself. The male was on the ground eating some of the seeds I had put out, and she flew in and landed next to him. She was too scared to eat, though, and I was lucky to get this photo of her before she disappeared again. I’m not surprised because he was very shy when he first showed up, too. As you can see, she looks very similar to him, but she’s smaller and slimmer. Where he’s black, she is a dark brown. Interestingly, both of them have the light yellow eyes, which only occur in birds in Florida and southern Georgia. In the rest of the United States, the males have red eyes while the females have brown eyes. Needless to say, I’m absolutely thrilled that my little man has attracted a mate, and that before too long, we will hopefully have some fledglings around!