Weekly Puzzler Answer #222

One thing that I love about writing this blog is that I regularly get to learn lots of all-things-Mother-Nature. When I’m outside exploring I often notice things that I can’t identify or don’t know much about. Knowing both the names of the plants and animals I encounter as well as the natural history of them, makes my time and experience more meaningful. Then when I see it again, it’s a bit like encountering an old friend after an absence. I love having an intimacy with the natural world. Are you this way too?

My puzzler from last week is a perfect example of this.

I saw this bird when I in Colorado this summer, backpacking for four days with my 13-year-old niece. During our time together I saw a lot of things that I took photos of, knowing I would investigate later, when I was off-trail and had access to my field guides and the internet. This bird was one of those things: I saw it, photographed it, and then, recently, read more about it. My niece said this bird was a junco but that only made me confused as I have seen many juncos in forests on the east coast where I live and none ever looked like this. This is what the juncos I have seen look like:

Though it seems confusing, the answer to last week’s puzzler, is indeed, a Dark-eyed Junco. The bird in the top photo as well as all of the other photos on this page are of the same bird–a Dark-eyed Junco. Surprisingly this bird is one of a handful that has a number of what’s called “variants.” On the page for the Dark-eyed Junco in the Sibley guide you will find 6 variants, including, Slate-colored, Pink-Sided, Oregon, Red-backed, Gray Headed and White-winged. All are the same size–6.25 inches long, with a wingspan of 9.25 inches, with a plain, gray head and breast and white belly. Also, they all have white outer tail feathers that flash noticeably in flight. All of them have similar habits, such as nesting in open coniferous or mixed woods, wintering in flocks, and foraging on the ground.

The bird from puzzler #222 is a variant of the Dark-eyed Junco, referred to as a Gray-Headed Junco, but it IS correct to just call it a Junco!

I didn’t mean for it to be a trick question! Just wanted to share what I learned about Juncos. I hope you find all of these things as interesting as I do!

Are you up for doing a few more birds as our puzzler theme? Our next puzzler is another bird, but this one will hopefully be a bit easier to identify. It is in the Jay family, and is a bird with a black bill, long tail and a beautiful black and white pattern.