and their eggs, including reptiles, mammals, and birds. A literature review summarizes several reports demonstrating that predators are a major cause of nest failure. The highest nest predation rate noted was 88% in a New York study. Mammals that are likely nest predators include common raccoons (Procyon lotor), domestic cats (Felis catus), and eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus). Snakes, such as bullsnakes (Pituophis catenifer), rat snakes (Elaphe spp.) and garter snakes (Thamnophis spp.) have been reported eating eastern towhee eggs. Weasels (Mustela spp.) and blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata) are also likely nest predators. Several birds are known to prey on both young and adult eastern towhees, including northern goshawks (Accipiter gentilis), broad-winged (Buteo platypterus), short-tailed (Buteo brachyurus), sharp-shinned (Accipiter striatus) and Cooper's hawks (Accipiter cooperii). Other predators include barred (Strix varia), short-eared (Asio flammeus) and eastern screech-owls (Megascops asio) and even the loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus), which is scarcely larger than a towhee. At least some mammals also feed on adult eastern towhees. In Maryland, an eastern towhee was found in the stomach contents of a red fox (Vulpes vulpes). Brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) parasitize eastern towhee nests. In a South Carolina old field, five of 19 eastern towhee nests were parasitized. Each parasitized nest contained one brown-headed cowbird egg. The desertion rate for parasitized nests was 20%, which was similar to nests that had not been parasitized (21%). Two of the five brown-headed cowbird eggs produced fledglings. The study did not determine if there was a difference in nest success between parasitized and nonparasitized nests. In West Virginia, only three of 41 eastern towhee nests were parasitized by the brown-headed cowbird. Average number of fledged young in nonparasitized nests was 2.8, which was similar to the average of 2.7 fledglings per parasitized nest. In a Pennsylvania study site, only two of 36 nests were parasitized and both produced eastern towhee fledglings. In a study of nest parasitism on Sanibel Island, none of five eastern towhee nests found were parasitized. References External links Eastern towhee species account – Cornell Lab of Ornithology Eastern towhee – Pipilo erythropthalmus – USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter Stamps (for United States) with range map at bird-stamps.org Eastern towhee bird sound at Florida Museum of Natural History eastern towhee Native birds of the Eastern United States Native birds of Eastern Canada eastern towhee eastern towhee Extant Late Pleistocene first appearances Articles containing video clips