Among the more “well-designed” birds in my view are the Dark-eyed Juncos. Coming from a graphic design background, I can appreciate their black heads and the various beautiful shades of cool grays, warm grays and brownish to pale peachy-rust colorations on the rest of their form. A real inspiration for a future painting or design composition for sure.
I especially like the contrast of the juncos as they hop on top of fresh snow and leave their telltale tracks. Their unique snow impressions and trail are easy to spot. This winter, I am seeing a lot of juncos, sometimes a half-dozen or more, feeding on the dried seeds of the native grasses in our back yard. They are enthusiastic ground feeders. But the minute I put up the thistle feeder in December, the juncos were there chasing away the goldfinches and intently gorging themselves for what seemed like hours.
The juncos also like the suet baskets, but the thistle feeder is their favorite when not scratching on the ground where the snow has melted away revealing dried grasses, seed morsels and berries.
There are many geographic variations of the Dark-eyed Junco, although all have a pinkish bill, dark eyes, white belly, and dark-centered tail with white outer feathers. The white on the tail is especially noticeable when they fly about. The Oregon form has the darkest hood or head, which is the variation I am seeing the most in Aldea this winter. I will keep a look out for the other variations and will update the blog when newcomers arrive on the scene.
Dark-eyed Juncos are in northern New Mexico year-round. But it seems that I mostly see them in the winter ground feeding and at the feeders. Dark-eyed Juncos range throughout North America, but they mostly migrate from Canada in the winter.
A group of juncos is known as a “crew”, “flutter”, “meinie”, “quarrel”, and “ubiquity” of juncos. Gotta love “Ubiquity of Juncos”.
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