My FOS Oregon Dark-eyed Junco (shufeldti?) appeared today at my feeders.
In addition, also my 5th appearance of a Blue Jay in 22 years! Cassin's Finches, and gray-headed and pink-sided races of Juncos as well. Concerning Juncos - I would like to open a conversation on this topic as per the races occurring in Colorado. I think there is not complete agreement upon the systematics of this bird; e.g. the number of recognized races. I believe that Pyle and the AOU disagree on specifics here among the Oregon and Pink-sided groups. Unfortunate because I feel that Pyle gives the most useful descriptions for the races. Pyle lists 5 subspecies of the Oregon group (oreganus, simillimus, thurberi, pinosus and shufeldti) and 1 subspecies of the Pink-sided group (mearnsi). While AOU lists 8 subspecies for the Oregon group, of which they consider Pyle's pink-sided race to be a part of (oreganus, shufeldti [lumping Pyle's simillimus in here I think], montanus, thurberi, pinosus, pontilis, townsendi and mearnsi). Using Pyle, my understanding is that Oregon shufeldti, Pink-sided mearnsi, Gray-headed caniceps, White-winged aikeni, and Slate-colored cismontanus and hyemalis can occur in Colorado. With the only potential difficult identification being between the two races of slate-colored; with cismontanus showing a hooded effect wherein hyemalis does not. I think there could also be some issues between shufeldti and mearnsi with some variation between females. Also, confusion with some slate-colored showing distinct white wing bars confusing it with aikeni - but more easily differentiated using other diagnostic features, e.g. white rectrices and bill color. Using AOU, shufeldti and montanus both can occur in Colorado I think - but I am not sure how to separate them in the field. Do I basically have this information correct above? Can anyone add to this? Is there a resource on the web with some of this info already? A Google search failed find it. I am recommending a response to the group as opposed to individually to me in order to spark group discussion on this please to drive towards a consensus on this topic. Thanks. Jeff J Jones ( <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]) Teller County - 8500' - Montane Woodlands -- 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.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
