Thanks for sending these links, Hilary. I look forward to looking at them in detail.
It seems that the taxonomy of Cassiar Junco, Junco hyemalis cismontanus, is quite unsettled. (Another name for this subspecies is henshawi, but that doesn't seem to be used much anymore.) Here is what I have been able to find out, with help from Gary Bletsch.
Most of you will remember that some subspecies groups of Dark-eyed Junco were once considered full species. Now they are lumped together, with some subspecies still gathered into groups. Some sources call cismontanus a valid subspecies within the Slate-colored Junco group, along with hyemalis and carolinensis. Clements, in the 2021 update, seems to recognize cismontanus as a subspecies group of its own, not part of the Slate-colored group. Another possibility is that Cassiar Juncos are a stable population of intergrades between Slate-colored (subspecies hyemalis) and Oregon (presumably subspecies montanus from the Oregon group) in the zone where they come into contact, and not a valid subspecies at all. Whatever Cassiar Junco is, it probably occurs in our area more often than we think, because it is so similar to Slate-colored and easy to overlook.
It's all interesting, anyway. Juncos are a very appealing bunch of birds.
Rachel Lawson
Seattle
rwlawson5593 at outlook.com
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From: Tweeters <
tweeters-bounces at mailman11.u.washington.edu> on behalf of Hilary Barnes <
habarnes at earthlink.net>
Sent: Monday, December 27, 2021 12:22 PM
To:
tweeters at u.washington.edu <
tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Tweeters] Cassiar Junco/ and a good (general) Junco species radiation resource
Avibase shows the taxonomic status of the Cassiar Junco as "a subspecies of Junco hyemalis [hyemalis, carolinensis or cismontanus]"
Is this the best place to look for taxonomic info? I did a not-so-satisfactory web search for authoritative info.
However, as I'm snowed in and hosting Juncos at my feeders, I ventured a bit down the rabbit hole of Junco taxonomy. I'll wait to hear what the experts have to say about Cassiar Junco, but I found stumbled on a resource of Indiana University Ordinary Extraordinary Junco
https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fjuncoproject.org%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7C5bd1a6090e44403a0cb508d9c976dc97%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637762334611284132%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=yWwsxF%2FzfN66JZQ3EnmgjnNXFHXBoLXjRmwwrZyf95c%3D&reserved=0 which has some interesting Vimeo segments on North American Juncon diversity and evolution. It does not include Cassiar Junco...I guess that's another story...but traces Juncos of the US back to a common ancestor in the Yellow-eyed Junco of Mexico.
Check out "(3) Diversification I: the Dark-eyed Juncos" from Ordinary Extraordinary Junco on Vimeo.
The video is available for your viewing pleasure at
https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fvimeo.com%2F58782474&data=04%7C01%7C%7C5bd1a6090e44403a0cb508d9c976dc97%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637762334611284132%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=Grp7%2ButAkUT1LnCjyidfbf8d%2Bn7BzffCwbonR%2FRHhNE%3D&reserved=0
Time to go outside!
Hilary Barnes
habarnes at earthlink.net
206-331-6058 cell
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