This is a common resident in much of California ranging from southern Oregon to Baja. Geographic variation
unsettled. Clements recognizes M. c. petulans ranging along the coast from Humboldt County to Santa Cruz
County. However BNA restricts it to Marin County north and assigns San Mateo peninsula birds to nominate M.
c. crissalis. Petulans is rich brown above with deep chestnut crown extending farther down nape than
in other subspecies and with brown flanks. Nominate is described as palest race, grayish brown above, crown dull
rusty, and breast and flanks grayish. If forced to pick between the two, I'd say this individual has characters
more like petulans in overall color and nape pattern. Digiscoped with Panasonic DMC-LX5 | Nikon FieldScope
III | 30XWA | hand-held (no adapter).Reference:
Benedict, L., M. R. Kunzmann, K. Ellison, L. Purcell, R. R. Johnson, and L. T. Haight (2011). California Towhee (Melozone crissalis), version 2.0. In The Birds of North America (A. F. Poole, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bna.632
Rising, J. (2018). California Towhee (Melozone crissalis). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/62018 on 26 November 2018).