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Dark-eyed Junco

Dark-eyed Junco

Junco hyemalis

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The Dark-eyed Junco is a small, grey North American sparrow best known for its clean white belly and flashing white outer tail feathers. It breeds across the boreal forest and in mountains and winters over most of the United States, where it is a familiar feeder bird. It is highly variable, with many intergrading regional forms. Its simple, musical trill and high chip notes are familiar in woods and winter gardens alike.

Did you know?

  • It is often nicknamed the “snowbird”, as it appears in gardens with winter storms.
  • Its many regional forms were once treated as several separate species.

Voice

Song
Call

About the species

Identification

A small sparrow with a grey head and mostly grey back and a clean white belly sharply demarcated from the grey. The bill is pink and the eyes dark; the back ranges from dark grey to paler, sometimes with brown, and the flanks may be reddish depending on the form. The wings are grey or brown, sometimes with a fine white wing bar. Young birds have a streaked breast.

Family

Passerellidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

grey, white

About the habitat

Breeds in coniferous and mixed forests of the boreal zone and in mountains; in winter forest edges, brushy clearings, fields and gardens.

Diet

Mainly seeds of grasses and weeds, with insects and other small invertebrates especially in the breeding season.

Behaviour

Forages on or near the ground, hopping and scratching for food and flicking its tail to flash the white outer feathers. It forms loose flocks in winter and sings a clear, rapid trill. Many populations migrate between northern breeding grounds and southern wintering areas.

Sources

Photo: Cephas, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Junco hyemalis hyemalis CT1 (cropped).jpg

Sound: Doug Hynes, XC569535, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/569535

Sound: Jonathon Jongsma, XC109855, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://xeno-canto.org/109855

Text: Wikipedia (English), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark-eyed_junco

See also