Friday, September 25, 2009

Welcome Back! - Dark-eyed Juncos

One of the great joys of birding is noting the coming and going of the migrating species signaling the change in season. A first-of-season (FOS) Dark-eyed Junco returned to Avimor this morning! I saw it flitting from tree to tree along Streams Edge Way. Once you learn to recognize it, they have a pretty distinct chirp. Dark-eyed Junco's are very common winter birds here at Avimor. You can see them at your feeder and all along Spring Valley Creek gleaning seeds from the various plants. They must like cooler weather as they tend to hang out in the Treasure Valley from late September through March. During the summer I will sometimes find them in cooler mountain areas among the pines. There are a few subspecies of Dark-eyed Junco which can be seen in this area. I believe the one I was looking at this morning was an Oregon variety. You can learn more at All About Birds.

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