Among the 30+ juncos showing up in my yard regularly is one white-winged. It arrived weeks after all the other versions. I have lots of pink-sided, Oregon and gray-headed, with a few slate-colored mixed in. And of course quite a number of hybrids which are sort of fun to sort out- probably incorrectly.
I had a junco-related observation recently which was interesting. We have quite a number of feeders in the yard, one of which is a small platform on legs that sits about eight or nine inches off the ground. The junco flock was feeding one afternoon under the tree from which are suspended many of our seed feeders. When a sharpie suddenly appeared in the tree, all of the birds disappeared into the shrubbery or over the horizon. Two juncos were under the little platform and noticed the sharpie too late to fly. The sightline from them to the accipitor was blocked by the platform, but they knew it was there. They froze right in place, and did not so much as move a feather. They might have been made of plaster- frozen practically in mid-peck. They stayed that way, clearly in (my- not the hawk's) view for fully ten minutes while the sharpie perched fifteen feet above them. As soon as the sharpie took off, the juncos resumed feeding as if nothing had happened. A few days later I saw a similar event with a Cooper's and a downy woodpecker. The downy made a quick move to the opposite side of a small branch from the hawk, and froze in place until the Cooper's looked the other way. Then the downy made a break for it and escaped unnoticed. Norm Lewis Lakewood -----Original Message----- From: mike <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sun, Dec 13, 2009 9:39 pm Subject: [cobirds] "White-winged " Junco - Red Rocks - Jefferson County Co-birders, This morning Kelly Miller, Bruce and Christopher Neuman (father & son team), joined me in a visit to the feeders at the Red Rocks Trading Post. Among the large numbers of Juncos was one "White-winged". The vast majority were either "Gray-headed" or "Pink-sided" with a few "Slate-colored" and only a couple of "Oregon". Other birds visiting the feeders included: Western Scrub Jay Black-capped Chickadee Spotted Towhee American Tree Sparrow - just a single bird Song Sparrow House Finch Other birds of note seen in Red Rocks Park included Townsend's Solitaire, Robins, and Bushtit. Mike Henwood Morrison - Jefferson County -- Colorado Field Ornithologists: http://www.cfo-link.org/ Colorado County Birding: http://www.coloradocountybirding.com/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.as/group/cobirds?hl=en -- Colorado Field Ornithologists: http://www.cfo-link.org/ Colorado County Birding: http://www.coloradocountybirding.com/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.as/group/cobirds?hl=en
