DEAR JOAN: My backyard feeders have been visited — on the ground only — by a bird with black and white wings, orange sides and white breast. It is almost the size of a robin, but a little smaller.

I looked it up online and in books, but can’t find him. Any ideas?

Wayne Kelder, Castro Valley

DEAR WAYNE: Without a photo I can’t be certain, but it sure sounds like a spotted towhee.

While towhees aren’t the most common visitors to backyard feeders, they do frequent Bay Area yards, and are a lot more colorful than their cousins, California towhees.

Both the male and female are described as white, rufous (reddish orange) and black, although the female’s color is a bit more muted. They both have black wings with white spots.

They are described as “robin sized,” and they feed mostly on insects, spiders, seeds, acorns and fruit. You’ll often find them scratching among the leaves, using both feet and exposing the ground beneath with a backward hop. Their call sound a bit like a cat mewing, and their song can be either a long trill or a series of notes that sound like an order to “drink your tea.”

They nest on the ground or slightly higher, and build a cup-shaped nest made from shreds of bark, grass, small roots, twigs and leaves.

DEAR JOAN: Thanks to a generous donation, February is “Eli’s Month of Love” at Muttville Senior Dog Rescue. In memory of their sweet Yorkie mix, Eli, the O’Donnell family is paying the adoption fees on all senior dog adoptions by qualified adopters.

The O’Donnells brought Eli home from a New York shelter 8 years ago and named him after Eli Manning, the quarterback for the New York Giants. Little Eli was a huge part of the  family and sadly, passed away recently. Now they want to make a difference for more senior dogs.

Go to Muttville, meet amazing senior dogs and find the best friend who will enrich your life the way Eli enriched the O’Donnells’.

Patty Stanton, Muttville Senior Dog Rescue

DEAR PATTY: What a generous gift. Here’s hoping a lot of deserving dogs will be going to new homes in February.

Take a look at the dogs just waiting for you on the organization’s site, muttvile.org, and then go in for a closer look at Muttville’s headquarters at 255 Alabama St., San Francisco.

There are many benefits to adopting older pets. While puppies and kittens are cute, they can be a handful, especially when it comes to training.

DEAR JOAN: I was aware that turkey vultures lived in the Bay Area, although I must admit I have seen very few. So, I was surprised when my wife and I were walking our dog near our home in San Jose, near the Santa Clara border, and came across two of them devouring a dead opossum. I’ve never seen vultures in an urban setting in California.

John Daly, San Jose

DEAR JOHN: Turkey vultures are very common across the Bay Area. Some folks even have them roosting in their trees at night, much to their dismay. The birds can be a bit messy.

They follow their noses, so to speak, so where there are dead animals, there will be turkey vultures.