Juncos are full of shades of gray. Perhaps that is why they are often equated to the gray-leaden skies of winter. But, do all Juncos look the same? Let’s take a closer look.
At first glance the juncos browsing under your feeders or nearby bushes may all look the same. With further inspection, you may start noticing some are paler than others. These are the females. The darker-colored birds are the males.
Notice the difference in the birds pictured above. The darker one is a male Slate-colored Junco. The paler two are females. But what happens when you get a junco that just doesn’t seem to fit what you expect to see? Such as the junco pictured below.
The Dark-eyed Junco is a complex group of birds made up of many subspecies. They are all called dark-eyed; but, each subspecies has its own name and color distinctions to differentiate from the other Dark-eyed Junco subspecies.
The predominant subspecies include Slate-colored, Oregon, Pink-sided, Gray-headed, White-winged and Red-backed. They have varying color patterns that distinguish them from the other subspecies; but, all have some things in common. They are all the same size, about 6 ¼” long; have white outer tail feathers; have a bill and belly that are whitish and all scratch on the ground foraging for seeds.
The real challenge of subspecies identification comes into play when Dark-eyed Juncos hybridize between subspecies. The second-pictured bird seems to be just that, a mix between the Oregon and Slate-colored subspecies. This makes a positive subspecies identification quite the challenge.
For most areas, juncos are starting to move from their wintering grounds to their breeding grounds. No matter the specific subspecies, now is a great time to take a closer look and try to spy the different shades of gray in Dark-eyed Juncos.
What juncos are at your feeders?
