Subject: [Tweeters] Help w/ western WA junco subspecies?
Date: Nov 24 08:19:45 2004
From: David White - drmwhite at nets.com


Good morning, Tweeters.

Although I've been out birding a bit lately (Skagit Flats on Saturday, Nisqually NWR on Sunday) I haven't seen much that wasn't reported by others--best birds were the Samish Gyrfalcon on Saturday, uncharacteristically sitting quietly on a utility pole near the west 90 and letting me get a very close look; also 3 Long-tailed Ducks at the little park on the north side of Samish Island.

Mostly I've been working, pounding away on my laptop at our apartment in Auburn, and I've been puzzling over some of the Dark-eyed Juncos visible out the window at the edge of a swath of woods. Most of them are typical Oregon Juncos, male and female; I'm quite familiar with them from winter birds back home in New Mexico.

But there are a few birds--not one, but several; I've seen at least three or four individuals--that, back in Santa Fe, I would not hesitate to call Pink-sided Juncos. They have fairly pale gray heads with darker lores, and fairly extensive pink on the sides (tho I must say that the extent of pink on the sides has never seemed to me a reliable distinction between Oregon and Pink-sided), and the most puzzling thing about the plumage is that the birds' backs are definitely streaked with darker brown on lighter reddish-brown (something not shown by Sibley for any of the subspecies).

Sibley indicates that Pink-sided is found no closer to western Washington than Montana, so I'm doubtful that these would be Pink-sided. Are these brown Slate-colored Juncos? Or juvenile Oregons? Or something else? Can anyone highlight the clincher fieldmarks I should be looking for?

Thanks in advance,

David White
drmwhite at nets.com
Auburn WA/Santa Fe NM