Hi Tweets,

Chris Corben writes:

>Michael, Your comment on the possible hybrid origin of a
>Slate-color with a twinge of brown is interesting to me. Every
>"slate-colored" that I have seen in Wash has had this feature,
>though it is subtle, and I am not familiar with the subspecies
>from the heart of its range.

I'll quote from Rising and Beadle's book, 'A Guide to the Identification and
Natural History of the Sparrows of the United States and Canada' (and the
Oscar for the longest book title in the natural history category goes to...):

(begin quote)
Slate-colored Junco (Junco hyemalis hyemalis)

The 'Slate-colored' Junco is slate-gray, except for having a white belly and
white outertail feathers; the gray is darkest on the head....Females and
first-year birds are paler and *often* have *considerable* brown in their
plumage, especially in back and flanks (emphasis mine).
(big snip)
Geographic variation: Three of the subspecies of Dark-eyed Juncos are put in
the 'Slate-colored' Junco complex, the northern Slate-colored Junco (J.h.
hyemalis), the Appalachian Carolina Junco (J.h. carolinensis), and the
northwestern Cassiar Slate-colored Junco (J.h. cismontanus)
(snip)
...Cassiar Juncos breed east of the coastal ranges from central Yukon
southeast to north-central and eastern British Columbia and west-central
Alberta. These birds represent a stable population of apparent hybrids
(intergrades?--m) between Slate-colored and 'Oregon' juncos (J.h. oreganus),
and they are intermediate in coloration between the two. Males have darker
heads, the edge of the slate on the breast convex instead of concave (as in
nominate 'Slate-colored', forming an inverted 'U'--m)
(snip)
...Most of the Slate-colored Juncos wintering in coastal British Columbia
appear to be J.h. cismontanus.
(end quote)

>From the above, I'd suggest it's reasonable that most of the coastal
sightings of male 'Slate-colored' Juncos are of 'cismontanus' intergrades
rather than nominate 'hyemalis' birds as would be implied in the
identification as 'Slate-colored', and that even birds which seem on plumage
alone to be of the nominate race are, in this part of North America, more
likely to be carrying some 'oreganus' genes than not.

Michael Price A brave world, Sir,
Vancouver BC Canada full of religion, knavery and change;
mprice at mindlink.net we shall shortly see better days.
Aphra Behn (1640-1689)