In response to a query from Michael Price about junco subspecies:

Michael, I think slate-colored (cismontanus) intergrades with Oregon
(montanus) in BC, presumably where you were, but cismontanus was recognized
as a "slate-colored" junco distinct from hyemalis by the 1957 AOU
Check-list (the last to deal with subspecies) and by Godfrey in Birds of
Canada. I assume you have Godfrey, and the account in that book would be
the best source, short of going to *the* source: Miller, A. H. 1941.
Speciation in the avian genus Junco. Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool. 44: 173-434.
All these old classical papers seem to be lost to the birding community of
today, no matter how keen they are. This paper has all that you ever wanted
to know about junco variation--perhaps more than you ever wanted to know.

Among our winter specimens of "slate-colored" juncos, I have distinguished
hyemalis from cismontanus by grayer vs. browner back (taking into account
sex and age); from our relatively small sample (5 hyemalis, 6 cismontanus)
we seem to get about equal numbers of each in the "Northwest" (inluding one
from BC, sorry).

Of the "Oregon" juncos, the west coast of BC is Junco hyemalis oreganus
territory, while Vancouver Island features intermediates between J. h.
oreganus and J. h. shufeldti. Shufeldti, the western WA/OR and Cascades
breeding race, looks just about the same as montanus, the breeding race of
interior ranges from central BC south to eastern OR, but is a little
shorter-winged and -tailed. J. h. thurberi, of southwest OR and CA, is
brighter-backed. J. h. mearnsi, the "pink-sided" junco of eastern MT/ID and
south, is paler all over, as I wrote yesterday.

J. h. caniceps, the southern Rockies "gray-headed" junco, has been reported
as a vagrant in sw BC so should be watched for--a beautiful bird. There are
no records of the "white-winged" junco, J. h. aikeni, a largish subspecies
of the Black Hills that looks like a slate-colored with white wing bars
(obscured in breeding season), from the west coast. As distinct as that
population is, there are specimens showing that it has hybridized with
mearnsi, from which it is separated geographically. All of the subspecies
that make contact apparently intergrade, including mearnsi with caniceps.

Juncos are fascinating critters from the standpoint of geographic variation
and thus evolution, and at feeders in AZ and NM you can sometimes see a
whole host of races together. That would be fun.

Dennis Paulson phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416