Townsend's Solitaire

Myadestes townsendi Audubon

 

 

 

Field Guide IDs:
NG-346; G-246; PE-218; PW-pl 48; AW-pl 476; AM(III)-50


Nest
Location
Nest
Type
Eggs &
Mating System
Dev. &
Parental Care
Primary &
2ndary Diet
..
Foraging
Strategy
?
I: ? DAYS
ALTRICIAL
SNAG
0 feet - 10 feet
CAVITY
?
4
(3-5)
MONOG
F: ? DAYS
MF
FRUIT
FOLIAGE
.....GLEAN
GROUND
...GLEAN

BREEDING:

Open montane coniferous forest on steep rocky slopes in about a 3,000' band below timberline. 1 brood, 2? in s.

DISPLAYS:

?

NEST:

Often amid tree roots or other shelter on ground; on base of trash, twigs, sticks, faded grass, with neat shallow cup of fine dry grass stems.

EGGS:

Dull white to light blue, marked with browns, occ wreathed. 0.9" (24 mm).

DIET:

Includes spiders, worms; esp berries. Young fed mostly insects. Winter diet occ exclusively berries.

CONSERVATION:

Winters s to c Mexico.

NOTES:

Breeding biology little known. Defends exclusive winter territories to protect supply of berries; each territory supplies total food for duration of winter. When berry supply is poor, winter territories also defended interspecifically to ensure adequate berry supply.

STANFORD. NOTES:

ESSAYS:

Territoriality; Interspecific Territoriality; How Do We Find Out About Bird Biology?

REFERENCES:

Salomonson and Balda, 1977.

Except for Stanford Notes, the material in this species treatment is taken, with permission, from The Birder's Handbook (Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, & Darryl Wheye, Simon & Schuster, NY. 1988).