Dark-eyed Junco
Junco hyemalis

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Emberizidae
Genus: Junco

Audio for Species

Call
Song

from Macaulay Library

Species Related Links

Additional Dark-eyed Junco Pictures

Description

Length: 5.5-6.3 in (14-16 cm ) Weight: 0.6-1.1 oz (18-30 g) Wingspan: 7.1-9.8 in (18-25 cm)

The Dark-eyed Junco is a fluttering medium-sized sparrow. Has a black to gray "headgear" that sometimes is colored with brown and extends to the breast. Has a white belly and dark tail with the outer tail frathers being white. The juvenilles are browner often with a raw sienna breast and adult markings obscured by striping on head, breast and wings. The female are sometimes paler and browner than the male.

Habitat, Range, and Feeding

They can be found in coniferous and deciduous forest, forest edge, clearings, bogs, open woodland, brushy areas adjacent to forest; in migration and winter in a variety of open woodland, brushy and grassy habitats. One of the most abundant birds of North America.

Nests in plant debris accumulations on the ground, often concealed by a log, rock, tree roots, leaves, or ground vegetation. The female will weave the nest together taking up to a week to build. The clutch size is 3 to 6 eggs, that are white, gray, pale bulusih white, or pale greenish white speckled with brown, gray, and green, but occasionally unmarked.

Junkos are seed eaters, that will occasionally eat insects.