Hellow Tweeters,

I have been looking at lots of juncos at close range the past year or so,
286 individuals, with a total of 816 captures, to be exact. I have been
looking at this exact problem of race very closely. I have determined that
not only can I not identify birds in the hand to race, I can not do it to
sex either. Some birds that I would sex by plumage, would be the opposit
sex by wing chord (lenght from wrist to tip of longest primary). this
applies to birds that are clearly "Shufeldt's" Oregon Junco (our breeding
race).

I see birds that look like the might be "Pink-sided," but when I get them
in my hand they will not have the right amount of white in the tail, or
something else will not be quite right. I also caught several females this
summer that looked like "Pink-sided," but they could not have been because
that were on eggs locally.

The point I am tryng to make here, is that beyond the major groups of
races, (i.e. Oregon, Slate-colored, etc.) these birds are very difficult
to identify under the very best of conditions. I can't do it in the hand
or by sight. They are difficult even when you can layout a bunch of skins
in a museum and compare them side by side.

Based on what I found in the field, in museum collectons, and in the
literature, I can say that I know of know confermed specimen or record of
Pink-sided Junco for the state of WA.

Russell Rogers

On Tue, 21 Oct 1997, Eugene Hunn wrote:

> Hi Gayle,
>
> While pink-sided juncos no doubt are occasional in Western Washington I
> don't believe the records committee has seen a really solid description.
> Problems is I'm not entirely sure how to tell them from the range of female
> Oregon Juncos. Anybody out there have a reliable identification routine?
>
> Gene Hunn.
>
> At 10:39 AM 10/21/97 -0700, you wrote:
> >Hi Tweeters
> >Am curious about distribution of Junco subspecies. We live on Orcas Island
> >and have a large flock of resident Dark-eyed Juncoes ("oregons") around the
> >house. I have noticed in the last week, however, that a couple "pink sided"
> >have joined the flock. Does this seem a little unusual or is it common for
> >them to wonder so far afield? We have only lived here for 3 years, but this
> >is the first year we've seem them.
> >Gayle Benton
> >Eastsound, WA
> >gbenton at pacificrim.net
> >
> >
> >
>
>