Wednesday, January 20, 2010

East meets West: Junco Style

Dark-eyed Junco

Every winter the bird feeders around the US are regularly visited by Juncos. One species of Junco is the Dark-eyed Junco. Subspecies of the Dark-eyed Junco include, but are not limited to, the "slate-colored" and "Oregon" or "east" and "west" Junco. The slate-colored subspecies is most often gray, with some small variations and allowances for brown and pink coloration. The Oregon subspecies on the other hand is very vibrant and has extensive brown/pink on the flanks on the back with a black or gray hood that strongly contrast the side flanks, belly, and back . (If you open the above link there are pictures of both subspecies on the bottom.)

Dark-eyed Junco

When east meets west and the help of a little Barry White, we get what may be a cross of the two subspecies, or a "Cassiar Junco"(Junco hyemalis cismontanus). That is the consensus to the identification and clarification of subspecies seen in these pictures by inquiry on the Wisconsin Bird Network. It is awesome having individuals with the same interest to bounce ideas off of, and in most cases these individuals are more experience birders with allot of knowledge. A great thanks to everyone on WisBirdN.

Dark-eyed Junco

While I find this topic fascinating, I have to wonder which of our family or friends even sees anything other than a bird.

2 comments:

Micah said...

My mom has always been WAY into identifying the different birds in our backyard in Iowa. There's still a pair of binoculars and a few bird books sitting right next to the picture window, and if we see any interesting-looking birds here in Wisconsin, we always call her right up!
Also, these pictures are awesome!

Aubrey said...

Great pictures! I'm starting to get interested simply because I like to believe that there is some interesting specie at my birdfeeders rather than just some ugly gray/white bird. LOL