Darkeyed Junco

The Dark-eyed Junco is sometimes called the “snowbird”. It is 6-inches long, slate gray with a white belly and white outer tail feathers. Male and female are similar, but immature birds are lighter in color. They forage for seeds on the ground in open areas. They like to live in thickets and edges of coniferous woodlands, mixed forests, and, in winter, backyards and gardens across America. Seeds, flower buds, and sprouts make up most of their diet. They like to build their nests under an overhang of tree roots or a road embankment. It conceals its nest of grasses, root lets, and mosses lined with finer plant materials and hair. The male helps carry materials for the female nest builder. Their 4 or 5 pale gray eggs marked with heavy reddish dots, hatch in 13 days. Young leave the nest at about 2 weeks of age. Attracting Dark-eyed Juncos is easy if you offer them red and white millet, cracked corn, and other small grains on or near the ground. Conifers are attractive, as are weedy edges and seeds of annuals and perennials.

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