 |
| Read more about Juncos. |
Birds that live near Chicago in the Midwestern States are divided into four groups: the permanent residents, the transients, the summer residents, and the winter residents. The cardinal, which can be seen any month, is a permanent resident. Some birds can be seen only as they pass through this region in the spring or fall; these are the transients, and the golden plover is an example. The summer residents nest in this region but migrate southward in the autumn; the chimney swift belongs to this group. The slate-colored junco or snowbird is a winter resident for it nests to the north and winters in southern Canada and the United States.
Almost any winter day, flocks of juncos can be seen flitting about through low bushes or hopping over the ground. As they fly, the white outer tail feathers flash conspicuously. Their color has been described as like a winter day: "leaden skies above, snow below." The head, chest, and back are an even slaty-gray and the color below is a sharply contrasting white.
The birds spend the winter in weed-filled pastures and along the brush-grown roadsides. They have heavy short bills which are well adapted to cracking the hard coats of weed seeds. The junco's diet is 78 percent vegetable matter: seeds of grasses, sedges, rushes, ragweed, lamb's quarters, Russian thistle and wild sunflower. Because it eats so much weed seed, the junco is ranked as one of the most useful of our native birds. The 22 percent animal food is composed of weevils, moths, caterpillars, grasshoppers, and other noxious insects. During the summer, nearly half the junco's food is insect material; during the winter, the food is composed almost entirely of seeds. Juncos are frequent visitors to feeding stations but they seem to prefer food found on or near the ground.
With the coming of spring the juncos flock together and move northward in large groups. They are joined by bands of juncos that have wintered farther south. The weed-filled ditches and the garden patches are filled with hordes of homeward-bound travelers.
The junco is a characteristic summer resident of the mountains of western Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont and the forests of northern Minnesota, Canada, and Alaska. In the winter the junco is generally sociable, but when nesting, it becomes retiring and prefers solitary places. In the White Mountains of New Hampshire it nests above the tree line. Nests are built on the ground among the fallen pine needles or hidden among the rushes and the sphagnum moss of spruce and cedar swamps. There are from three to five specked whitish eggs that are incubated for eleven or twelve days.
The name junco is derived from the Latin word for rush and seems, appropriate, for this little bird is frequently found among these plants. Pabst
Almost any winter day, flocks of juncos can be seen flitting about through low bushes or hopping over the ground. As they fly, the white outer tail feathers flash conspicuously. Their color has been described as like a winter day: "leaden skies above, snow below." The head, chest, and back are an even slaty-gray and the color below is a sharply contrasting white.
The birds spend the winter in weed-filled pastures and along the brush-grown roadsides. They have heavy short bills which are well adapted to cracking the hard coats of weed seeds. The junco's diet is 78 percent vegetable matter: seeds of grasses, sedges, rushes, ragweed, lamb's quarters, Russian thistle and wild sunflower. Because it eats so much weed seed, the junco is ranked as one of the most useful of our native birds. The 22 percent animal food is composed of weevils, moths, caterpillars, grasshoppers, and other noxious insects. During the summer, nearly half the junco's food is insect material; during the winter, the food is composed almost entirely of seeds. Juncos are frequent visitors to feeding stations but they seem to prefer food found on or near the ground.
With the coming of spring the juncos flock together and move northward in large groups. They are joined by bands of juncos that have wintered farther south. The weed-filled ditches and the garden patches are filled with hordes of homeward-bound travelers.
The junco is a characteristic summer resident of the mountains of western Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont and the forests of northern Minnesota, Canada, and Alaska. In the winter the junco is generally sociable, but when nesting, it becomes retiring and prefers solitary places. In the White Mountains of New Hampshire it nests above the tree line. Nests are built on the ground among the fallen pine needles or hidden among the rushes and the sphagnum moss of spruce and cedar swamps. There are from three to five specked whitish eggs that are incubated for eleven or twelve days.
The name junco is derived from the Latin word for rush and seems, appropriate, for this little bird is frequently found among these plants. Pabst
Juncos filmed in Canada by
Dominique Lalonde Films Nature
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your thoughts. All comments are moderated. Spam is not published. Have a good day!