E.H. VanBlaricomA female Oregon Junco.

I took this photo of a female Oregon junco trying to get some sunflower seeds open. Most people just called them “snowbirds” when I was growing up as they seem to be around when most other birds have gone south for the winter.

It has been my observation that whenever there were storms in Alaska or British Columbia, we would get numerous flocks of these juncos in a variety of habitats. One of the more attractive habits of all of the juncos is that they flash their white tail feathers when they fly. They get most all of their food on the ground where they eat both insects and seeds. They are ground-nesters and I have actually seen them build their nests in an old rusty tin can that has been discarded under the bushes. I have never seen or heard of this from any other birdwatcher or bird book, but I saw this more than once when I was growing up. Perhaps they liked to stay dry when it rained.

The male juncos have a much blacker hood than the females and their song is quite musical even though it’s all on the same pitch. Oregon juncos have little fear of human contact so we can study them up fairly close. Some of our juncos fly south as far as Texas and Mexico. For the ones we have here, people like to throw breadcrumbs out on the snow or put out a bird feeder that allows the seeds to spill out on the ground.

The best thing about them is they are frequently still around when most other birds have gone to warmer climates.

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E.H. Van Blaricom resides in Joseph.