Green-tailed Towhees are small but chunky songbirds with a big head, stocky body and longish tail. The bill is thick and sparrowlike. They are larger than most sparrows and have shorter tails than most other towhees. Green-tailed Towhees are grayish birds with olive-yellow wings, back and tail. The head is strongly marked with a bright rufous crown, white throat, and a dark "mustache" stripe.

References cited in Species Profile

• Byers, C., J. Curson, and U. Olsson. 1995. Sparrows and buntings: a guide to the sparrows and buntings of North America and the world. Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston.
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology. 2015. Green-tailed Towhee. All About Birds. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Green-tailed_Towhee/lifehistory
• Dobbs, R. C., P. R. Martin and T. E. Martin. 2012. Green-tailed Towhee (Pipilo chlorurus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/368
• Great Basin Bird Observatory. 2015. Green-tailed Towhee. http://www.gbbo.org/pdf/bcp/71_Green-tailedTowhee.pdf
• Partners in Flight. 2012. Species Assessment database. http://rmbo.org/pifassessment/Database.aspx