towhee, common name for a North American bird of the family Fringillidae (finch family). Towhees are also called chewinks, for their call, and ground robins, because like robins they are ground feeders—often detected by the rustling noise they make searching through dry underbrush for insects. In the male red-eyed towhee, found E of the Great Plains and in parts of Canada, the upper parts are glossy black and the underparts white with patches of chestnut-brown on the sides. The white-eyed towhee is found in the South, and the inconspicuous brown and Abert's towhees in the West. The green-tailed towhee is a western mountain bird. The various species of towhees all belong to the genus Pipilo. Towhees are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Aves, order Passeriformes, family Fringillidae.

Any of several North American songbirds (passerine family Emberizidae), long-tailed thicket-dwellers that noisily scratch the ground for food. The name is from the call of the eastern, or rufous-sided, towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus), known as chewink in the southeastern U.S.; it ranges from Canada to Central America. About 8 in. (20 cm) long, it has a dark hood, white-cornered tail, and rusty flanks; western subspecies have white-spotted wings. The canyon, or brown, towhee (P. fuscus) of the western U.S. is a plain-looking bird. The green-tailed towhee (P. chlorurus), also western, is gray, white, and greenish, with a red-brown cap.

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