Oregon Junco

Before the snow storm, I planned to post this image of an Oregon Junco and to discuss the “nightmarish,” “turbulent” history of the species (Nolan et al. 2020), Oregon Juncos are one of 15 races, of what were recently considered to be five species. Now all are named Dark-eyed Juncos. Eight of the western races were referred to as Oregon Juncos. Eastern birds were named Slate-colored Juncos. The bird in the photo, banded on 3 February 2021 in Olympia, probably, is either J. h. oreganus, J. h. shufeldti. or J. h. montanus. The snow storm, on 12 February 2021, brought plenty of juncos to our feeders. Several were unexpected visitors at the suet, an odd food sources for these seed-loving birds.