- Junco hyemalis
Includes Guadalupe Junco
Identification
5-6 1/4 in (13-16 cm) This species shows much geographic variation in color, with many recognized populations or subspecies. All are easily recognizable as Juncos, due to the body shape and behavior. The subspecies are named and grouped variously depending on the authority listing them, but the following four major designations are common:
Oregon Junco
Found in western populations. The male has a black hood, chestnut mantle, and white underparts with buff sides. The female has a gray hood.
Slate-colored Junco
The male has a dark slate-gray head, upper breast, flanks, and upperparts, with a white lower breast and belly.
Both forms have pink bill and dark gray tail with white outer tail feathers conspicuous in flight.
White-winged Junco
Isolated populations in the pine forests of the Black Hills in western South Dakota and eastern Montana. Two white wing bars, extensive white in outer tail feathers.
Gray-headed Junco
Populations in the Southwest. Gray overall, with reddish-brown back.
Distribution
Northern birds migrate further south; many populations are permanent residents or altitudinal migrants. In winter, juncos are familiar in and around towns. The "Slate-coloured" Junco is a rare vagrant to western Europe and has wintered in Great Britain, usually in a domestic garden.
Taxonomy
The best-known species of junco, a genus of small American sparrows.
Until recently the many geographical forms of this bird were considered separate species, but since they interbreed wherever their ranges meet, they are now considered one species.
The subspecies insularis from Guadalupe Island is sometimes still considered a separate species, Guadalupe Junco.
Habitat
Openings and edges of coniferous and mixed woods; in winter, fields, roadsides, parks, suburban gardens.
Behaviour
This lively territorial bird is a ground dweller and feeds on seeds and small fruits in the open. It also moves through the lower branches of trees and seeks shelter in the tangle of shrubs.
Nesting
3-6 pale bluish or greenish eggs, with variegated blotches concentrated at the larger end, in a deep, compact nest of rootlets, shreds of bark, twigs, and mosses, lined with grasses and hair, placed on or near the ground, protected by a rock ledge, a mud bank, tufts of weeds, or a fallen log. Incubation lasts about 12 days by the female only. Young juncos leave the nest from 10 to 13 days after hatching. These birds often have 2 to 3 broods a summer.
Diet
Insects, seeds, and berries.
Vocalisation
Song
A high trill
Call
A rapid tew tew tew. Sometimes given softly
Also, tzeep tzeep especially when disturbed
