Ah, the wonderfully variable junco. One of the males in the yard has dapper white wing bars. Sibley on page 501 states that one in two hundred “have wing-bars as prominent as White-winged”. This is clearly a Slate-colored—it’s the same size as the other juncos in the yard and its throat and face are uniformly dark, but it has those nice, white wing bars.
Thirteen species have visited the yard so far today:
- Rock Pigeon
- Mourning Dove
- European Starling (around 18)
- Northern Cardinal (1 male and 1 female)
- White-throated Sparrow (4 or 5)
- Song Sparrow (1, a beautiful representative of the species, with extensive buff-tan sides and flanks, and dark, crisp streaks)
- Dark-eyed Junco (4 or 5)
- Brown-headed Cowbird (1 male and 1 female)
- Red-winged Blackbird (1 adult male)
- Common Grackle (1)
- House Finch (6 or so)
- American Goldfinch (3)
- House Sparrow (around 100)
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