Leftovers

Click 'PLAY' button above for the associated video.
With the change in seasons from the cold months to the hot ones, species that wintered in the tropics come to our region to parent their young, while many of our wintering birds are heading north or upslope, others are what are called resident – existing year round in generally the same location. Here at the 2500 ft. elevation in Forest Ranch we catch many of the birds as they’re passing through, but are also glad for the ‘leftovers’.

One bird that is at our feeder throughout the winter months stays around long enough to nest then travels to higher elevation during the hottest months. At the feeders they congregate in groups of a dozen or so, but now they are generally seen singly or in pairs. The darker headed male issue a long sweet trill while the grayer headed female emits faint chip notes.

Dark-eyed juncos come in a variety of models…er… subspecies: by far the most common hereabouts is the Oregon subspecies, occasionally the gray and white ‘slate-colored’ subspecies is seen, pink-sided, white-winged and gray headed subspecies are found elsewhere. As Liam and I are out walking through the woods we often identify dark-eyed juncos as they flutter away by the ‘fanned-out’ bright white outer tail feathers (rectrices) on their otherwise black tail (see the preening bird in the attached video).