Eastern Towhee © audubon.org

Vagrant to St Pierre and Miquelon (P), United Kingdom.

Relationships of genus not clear, although generally placed close to several other, similarly proportioned tropical American genera (e.g. some Aimophila, Atlapetes, Pyrgisoma and Melozone). Sometimes considered conspecific with subspecies erythrophthalmus of Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus), with which it hybridizes in Great Plains of USA. Subspecies intergrade, making delimitation difficult. Geographical variation in biometrics, plumage colour and iris colour largely clinal.

The following 4 subspecies are recognised:

• erythrophthalmus (Linnaeus, 1758)   -  Breeds in southern Canada (southern Manitoba, southern Ontario and extreme southern Quebec) and eastern USA(northern Minnesota east to northern Vermont, central New Hampshire and south-western Maine, south to north-eastern Oklahoma, northern Arkansas, southern Tennessee, north-eastern Georgia, north-western South Carolina, central North Carolina and Virginia). Non-breeding mainly from Nebraska, Wisconsin, southern Michigan, extreme southern Ontario, Pennsylvania, southern New York and Massachusetts south to Oklahoma, central-southern and south-eastern Texas, Gulf Coast and south-central Florida.
• canaster Howell, AH, 1913   -  North-eastern Louisiana, north-western Mississippi, south-western Tennessee, northern Alabama, northern Georgia, central South Carolina and western North Carolina south to Gulf Coast (central-southern Louisiana east to north-western Florida), east-central Alabama, south-eastern Georgia and coastal South Carolina.
• rileyi Koelz, 1939   -  South-eastern Virginia, coastal North Carolina and coastal South Carolina south to south-eastern Alabama, south-eastern Georgia and northern Florida. Non-breeding also western and central Florida.
• alleni Coues, 1871   -  Florida.

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