Dark-eyed Juncos

Here are a couple Dark-eyed Juncos from last autumn. They were the 1st ones I got pictures of last season, but they're typically around earlier than November; the previous year I got pictures of them in early October.

Though they breed further north from NJ, they spend a lot of time down here to escape the harsher northern winters. I've gotten pictures of them between October and April, so despite them not breeding here they can be spotted here over half the year. (I don't know if individual juncos are here for 7 months; I suspect I'm seeing a mix of early and late migrators during these months.)

Almost all our sparrows have "sparrow" in their common names; juncos, towhees, and buntings [1] are the main exceptions.

November 16, 2022 at Duke Farms
Photo 251084869, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


[1] Buntings a slightly complicated. Some of them are classified as sparrows while others are classified as cardinals.


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