Junco - Oregon Form

[nanny_56]

Spotted this Oregon form of the Dark-eyed Junco in the yard this week. The black head really made it stand out fron our regular junco visitors.

[gamekeeper]

We had very few Junco s this winter usually have many?

[Spider]

Wow, that is unusual! Have you reported it to the local Audubon society?

http://www.audubon.org/

[nanny_56]

Wow, that is unusual! Have you reported it to the local Audubon society?

http://www.audubon.org/

I have to say it had not occurred to me to report it until after I read this yesterday! So I did send off an eamil to the local chapter. They did confirm that it is indeed an Oregon Form Junco.

Got this reply back to day...

Hi Claudia,

Thanks for sharing the photo. The bird in the photo does appear to be a male Dark-eyed Junco of the "Oregon" subspecies. This subspecies is uncommon in Indiana and, unfortunately, it is overreported. There is a lot of variation within the junco subspecies and often people mistake normal variation for a different subspecies.

Your bird looks pale for "Oregon" junco but has the right field marks. I would hazard a guess that Oregons make up less than 1% of the total junco population in Indiana in winter.

What city/county are you located in?


Don Gorney
Amos W. Butler Audubon Society, President
Lights Out Indy, Program Director
Indianapolis, IN
dongorney AT yahoo.com
amosbutleraudubon.org
lightsoutindy.org

[Spider]

How cool! Perhaps he could be a local "Oregon" cross to make him pale, or you shot through your window. Very cool though.

[nanny_56]

The photos were shot thru the dirty window which no doubt did effect the quality of the photo that day.
I was happy to get the response back...thanks for suggesting it.

[Kas]

It looks like the females we see out here. Unless we have two types. I don't really bird, but I do look up ones I haven't seen before. These are everywhere out here.

Kas