Yellow-eyed Junco

Overview

Yellow-eyed Junco: Medium sparrow with rufous back and upperwings, pale gray rump and head, and pale gray underparts. Bright yellow eyes contrast with faint mask. The belly is white; tail is dark gray with white outer tail feathers. Bill has black upper mandible and pink lower mandible.

Range and Habitat

Yellow-eyed Junco: Resident in mountains of southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. Preferred habitats include coniferous forests and pine-oak woods.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Yellow-eyed Junco was first described in 1831 by Johann Georg Wagler, a German herpetologist.
It is the only North American junco with yellow eyes.
They are locally abundant, sedentary, and philopatric, and they adapt well to captivity.
These traits make this an exceptional species for behavioral studies.
A group of sparrows has many collective nouns, including a "crew", "flutter", "meinie", "quarrel", and "ubiquity" of sparrows.

The Yellow-eyed Junco has a large range reaching up to around 470,000 square kilometers. This bird can be found in Guatemala, Mexico and the United States. Its preferred terrain are subtropical and tropical forests, shrublands and grasslands. The global population of this bird is estimated to be around five to fifty million individual birds. Currently, it is not believed that the population trends for this species will soon approach the minimum levels that could suggest a potential decline in population. Due to this, population trends for the Yellow-eyed Junco have a present evaluation level of Least Concern.