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