What do I have here? (1 Viewer)

[SteveC_07]

Two or three of these showed up at my feeders yesterday in south central Kansas.

 

[phil baber]

it's a Junco. But which?

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

Looks like a Dark-eyed Junco - the Pink-sided form I think.

 

[phil baber]

Quite possibly. Have a look at this....

http://www.oceanwanderers.com/JuncoID.html

 

[SteveC_07]

Quite possibly. Have a look at this....

http://www.oceanwanderers.com/JuncoID.html

Phil,

Thanks (I think) for that link. Have you read that whole discussion? I'm more confused than ever. David Sibley http://www.sibleyguides.com/sibleyguide.htm even weighed in, but seemingly very little is resolved. Although, this did help explain another Junco I've seen but haven't been able to get a picture of yet.

Thanks again.

 

[james holdsworth]

I would probably mark this down as 'unidentifiable' to race. There just seem to be too many intermediate characteristics to be certain of lineage.

We get a few immaculate 'oregon-type' and a very [very] few mearnsi [two accepted records] in Ontario and both are strikingly dissimilar to eastern variants.

Without jumping off the deep end and getting into the whole surfbird junco discussion, I tend to just look for 'textbook' examples of 'oregon group' [recall there are 7 races involved! ] and mearnsi and forget about the rest. Assuming there is a broad area of overlap and interbreeding between western races, there should also be a broad and diverse range of potential variants, all of unclear parentage and [mostly] unidentifiable.

I spent a few seasons banding thousands of Juncos at Long Point and we recorded a great many birds that [even in the hand] could not be sussed out to race. The amount of potential variation was rather mind-numbing, as we never seemed to get a handle on what we were holding at the time! In the end, it was simpler to just let the 'odd' ones go.

edit - Forgot to add, if you had three of 'these', chances are very good they are not western juncos, likely variants of eastern-types.

 

[SteveC_07]

I would probably mark this down as 'unidentifiable' to race. There just seem to be too many intermediate characteristics to be certain of lineage.

We get a few immaculate 'oregon-type' and a very [very] few mearnsi [two accepted records] in Ontario and both are strikingly dissimilar to eastern variants.

Without jumping off the deep end and getting into the whole surfbird junco discussion,

edit - Forgot to add, if you had three of 'these', chances are very good they are not western juncos, likely variants of eastern-types.

James,

I actually read that whole surfbird discussion. It was mind-numbing! I was able to see two birds side by side today in good light. They are virtually identical except one has very noticeable black lores and the other doesn't. The bird I'm really hoping to get a picture of is (I've been told) a male Rocky Mountain variant per a Sibley book that I don't have. (Do you know if this is the same as the Cassiar?) Very striking - looks like a regular SC Junco with a coal-black hood. Oh well, the last few years all I got was hordes of standard slate-colored.

 

[james holdsworth]

What you describe sounds like Cassiar to me, although I have only seen a few that I could ever ID with any certainty. [adult males]

Someone like Rick Wright or Gavin Bieber may have more experience with these races. Maybe they will chime in. Better yet, get that photo!

 

[SteveC_07]

This is one of two of my feeder birds I believe are male Cassiar's. The other one had no trace of brown on its back whereas this one has a little bit.

 

[james holdsworth]

Sure looks good to me! [for Cassiar]