15 replies to this topic

[Clip]

Taken yesterday Colorado front range. Is this a Junco and if so is it Dark eyed, pink sided or Oregon. They all have one that looks much like this bird. So baffled!

[/img]

[creeker]

Judging by the reddish back and dark head, I'm going with Dark-eyed, Oregon type.

[Clip]

Do Juncos confuse anyone else!? I was thinking Dark eyed and Oregon were separate types. I guess I need to read up on them. Thanks Creeker.

[BarnSwallow]

Just to be clear, Oregon and pink-sided are different races of dark-eyed junco.

[Clip]

Barn swallow thank you that now makes more sense.

[Shoveler26]

I think That might be a Pink Sided Male.I Know my Junco's very well. But Also Could be a Oregon female.

[Clip]

Cool if it is a pink sided. It did seem a little larger than the Juncos I see in my backyard if that helps firm up the id.

[TheBillyPilgrim]

Female Oregon for me (back looks a bit reddish for a pink-sided and the head looks fairly dark). Definitely tough to be sure, though. To further confuse things, you've also got Gray-headed in your area

[dklucius]

dark eyed junco cover all the different varietys of juncos with dark eyes. there are yellow eyed juncos but they are mostly seen in southern Arizona and Old Mexico. Here the pinksided and the grey headed are the most common and the oregon and slate colored do show up some.the different varietys do inter breed and hybridize

[Clip]

Got a photo of this Junco in the backyard yesterday evening. I'm thinking Dark-eyed Oregon. Note the lack of mask on this one and that there is a mask visible on the first photo. Making it a pinksided yellow eyed. Agree or disagree?

[/img]

[JimBob]

Yeah that's a dark-eyed (yellow-eyed live in southern AZ I think). Oregon subspecies is correct also.

[Clip]

JimBob- you are correct. I got cofused thinking the pink sided was a yellow-eyed. Arrrrgh! My bad! Okay so I have this straight in my head the Dark-eyed have Oregon and Pink-sided which are very similar but the pink sided has a bit of a mask and the Oregon does not. Do I have this straight now?

[TheBillyPilgrim]

Got a photo of this Junco in the backyard yesterday evening. I'm thinking Dark-eyed Oregon. Note the lack of mask on this one and that there is a mask visible on the first photo. Making it a pinksided yellow eyed. Agree or disagree?

[/img]

To clear things up a bit, there are 2 species of Junco: Dark-eyed and Yellow-eyed. All of the other different names (Oregon, Pink-sided, etc.) are just races of the Dark-sided species. Therefore, a "pink-sided Yellow-eyed" doesn't exist, but an "Oregon Dark-eyed" does. You last bird is indeed an Oregon race.

[Clip]

TheBillyPilgram thanks. We must have been typing at the same time. My post above yours is me figuring out what you are saying. Thanks!

[TheBillyPilgrim]

TheBillyPilgram thanks. We must have been typing at the same time. My post above yours is me figuring out what you are saying. Thanks!

No problem. Their classification is sort of confusing an probably not an accurate reflection of their evolutionary relationship (some people have hypothesized that the gray-headed race of Dark-eyed is probably closer related to the Yellow-eyed, based on song type; others think the whole complex should be considered one species!)

[cwj2323]

I have nothing to add about the original photos, but last year I had the fits trying to identify the subspecies when someone brought up the Cassiar Junco... after searching and re-searching about that, I gave up and enjoyed my Dark-eyed Juncos for the rest of the season.