Dark-Eyed Junco

The Dark-eyed Junco is a dapper-looking, ground feeding sparrow with a distinctive charcoal black head resembling a hood extending to its breast, contrasting with a rusty back and white belly. Its dark head is offset with a small, startlingly pink bill. Females display a more muted, grayer black hood. The Junco has a proportionally long tail with flashing white outer tail feathers. The white tail feathers flash brightly in flight and then seemingly disappear in concealment neatly folded under the dark tail once landed on the ground to feed on seeds and insects in safe obscurity.

Often seen in tight flocks feeding on the ground they characteristically hop from one spot to the next, seldom scratching with their feet like some of the other ground feeding, drabber looking sparrows active nearby.

The Dark-eyed Junco appears in several distinctly different looking forms coast to coast. Our western version, the Oregon Junco has a rusty colored back with pinkish sides. Watch for a more uniformly dark form, the Slate-colored Junco, a visitor, that may also be over-wintering within the same hungry flock

Most Dark-eyed Juncos are highly migratory. They traditionally breed throughout Canada and Alaska and in higher, montane elevations, descending to overwinter in warmer climes throughout the U.S. Although their local numbers swell markedly in winter months, we are noting some degree of breeding activity locally as well.

Whether a local resident or a migratory visitor, listen attentively for their distinctively quavering song performed only by the male, which is an extended musical trill, quite recognizable to the practiced listener.

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