Where do Dark-eyed Juncos spend cold nights (Arapahoe)?

[Jared Del Rosso]

I'm pretty sure at least one Dark-eyed Junco spends the night within the frame of an outdoor lounge-type chair. It (the frame) has a large opening, out of which a junco has emerged the last two mornings. There's a perch-like rod that runs horizontally across the frame. There are bird droppings within the frame's empty space.

I also think juncos may be overnighting beneath my shed. I see junco-like footprints and bird droppings on the landscapes bricks that I placed around the edge of the shed, my lazy attempt to discourage raccoons and foxes from accessing the space beneath the shed, which has about 8 inches of space beneath it.

I've not yet noticed juncos within my (now empty) chicken coop. I'll keep an eye on that.

My yard is edged with a thicket of Nannyberry (Viburnum lentago) and chokecherries. There are other random, non-native landscaping plants mixed in. There's also a juniper, which has reseeded and created several small junipers. I've added some downed branches and the corpse of a few, small Christmas trees to the mix. The towhees seem to like staying within the mess of all of that. Seems like some juncos prefer more manufactured spaces.

- Jared Del Rosso

Centennial, CO

 

[Pauli Driver-Smith]

They hang out in my hen house along with various other sparrows and finches. There is a gap above the door which allows them to come and go. Between the heat from the hens and the heat lamp, which I have going right now, they are nice and warm. I haven't seen them eating the chicken feed, but they are swarming my feeders right now. They have learned that there isn't much seed on the ground from the feeders right now.

I watched one yesterday, figure out how to get to the seed in the feeders. It stood around the deck railing, then made several attempts to land on the feeder's perch, missing it a few times, then finally making it. Now, I have five or six constantly eating from the thistle seed feeder, and a couple others from the regular feeder. The only other visitors right now are the Chickadees. I think that the house finches are content to stay in the warm hen house and eat the chicken feed.

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From: cob...@googlegroups.com <cob...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Jared Del Rosso <jared.d...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2024 8:39 AM
To: Colorado Birds <cob...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [cobirds] Where do Dark-eyed Juncos spend cold nights (Arapahoe)?

 

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[Libby Edwards]

Juncos seems to nestle as close to the base of the house as possible, under porches and behind bushes.  

But I love the way the flickers flatten themselves on the lee side of the trunk of our honey locust to keep warm.  They often line up along the trunk, as flattened as they can get.  It is so interesting to see.  

I also have been wondering how the regular feeder birds are keeping warm, but when morning hits, they are back feeding.  Today a mountain chickadee was with the regular black capped visitors, magpies and doves, a robin and two blue jays, a scrub jay all puffed out, and a lot of juncos!  I agree, the house finches seem to be waiting for a spring day to sing!

Libby Edwards

Northwest Fort Collins

Larimer County

On Jan 15, 2024, at 10:18 AM, Pauli Driver-Smith <hollyho...@msn.com> wrote:



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[Susanna Donato]

So interesting! We have a scrubby area of cotoneaster, mountain mahogany, and some kind of volunteer small juniper that's full of sparrows and towhees, and there are some wood pieces of an old chicken coop leaning on a shed where there are juncos all the time. Yesterday, I saw a couple emerge from a deep window well where there's a dead vine at the bottom. The juncos are getting quite masterful at eating from my feeder as well as on the ground if the blue jays shake seed out with their heavy landings. (Otherwise, squirrels are getting the seed on the ground first.) Yesterday it was so cold that I noticed a red-breasted nuthatch sitting still, puffed up, on a branch instead of just darting in and out as they usually do. And I woke both of the last two days to a rapping that at first I thought was a squirrel trying to break into the house, but turned out to be the flickers chipping away at the frozen suet. 

Susanna Donato

Denver