CohoWild: an unusually beautiful dark eyed junco?
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Nancy Betty Baumeister
Nov 30, 2021, 11:25:37 PM11/30/21
to Mid-Valley Nature, South Corvallis
Over the last year and a half I started sending brief hyper-local nature updates to my immediate neighbors at CoHo eco village in south Corvallis. They are all photos taken on our 7 acre property.
It has occurred sometimes that I might share them more widely, so here is my latest.
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November 23, 2021
Interestingly, the dark-eyed junco occurs on the entire north American continent, from the east coast to the west coast. Numerous (15 at this time) subspecies with different plumages are recognized, but they are able to interbreed and so are considered a single species. In northern Mexico, the dark-eyed junco overlaps with another species, the yellow-eyed junco, and there are 3 other junco species with very small ranges recognized in Central America.
Maybe I don’t look carefully enough at juncos. They are so abundant in the winter that I mentally look past them to look for less abundant birds. But the beauty of the plumage on this bird. The warm brown and cool grey on their back, brown connecting to black on wing, black hood. Beautiful.
In the trees and shrubs in the northeast corner, November 23, 2021.
Interestingly, the dark-eyed junco occurs on the entire north American continent, from the east coast to the west coast. Numerous (15 at this time) subspecies with different plumages are recognized, but they are able to interbreed and so are considered a single species. In northern Mexico, the dark-eyed junco overlaps with another species, the yellow-eyed junco, and there are 3 other junco species with very small ranges recognized in Central America.
And oddest of all, the dark eyed junco sometimes hybridizes with white throated sparrows.
Nancy (Betty) Bee
"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving." -Lao Tzu
Don A Boucher
Dec 1, 2021, 12:21:14 AM12/1/21
to Mid-Valley Nature
Thanks Nancy,
I appreciate your attention to the lovely and cute junco. And I didn't know that there are junco x White-throated Sparrow hybrids. I did a photo search and they're kinda cute. I just can't imagine how either attracts the other as a mate, though. They're just so different.
There was a documentary about juncos several years ago, "Ordinary Extraordinary Junco." It explores their distribution, similar species and natural history. They may be common but they're truly extraordinary. Here's a link if anyone wants to watch it: https://juncoproject.org/
Don Boucher
NE Corvallis
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