Another of the forgotten species of birds that inhabit this part of west Texas is the Dark-eyed Junco. (Junco hyemalis). In all honesty, I have never personally seen one here in San Angelo, but I have in nearby places such as the Abilene area and Fort Davis, for example. Why they avoid San Angelo, I do not know.
The two types that I am familiar with are the Slate-colored group and the Oregon group. Rather than try to tell you the differences in text, I will show a couple of images that I took over the past few years. In these photographs you can see the difference between the two.
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon group)
- Photographed February 15, 2009
- Canon EOS 40D
- Canon 100-400mm zoom lens (400mm)
- 1/500 sec. @ f5.6 ISO 400
- Metering – center weighted
- Aperture priority
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored group)
- Photographed November 10, 2010
- Canon EOS 7D
- Canon 500mm f4 IS super-tele lens (500mm)
- 1/400 sec. @ f4 – ISO 3200
- Metering – partial
- Shutter priority
There are also some other variations of the junco that are not ususally seen around west Texas. They are Pink-sided, White-winged, Gray-headed and Yellow-eyed.
Click on either of the images to see enlargements.
While you’re here click Avian101 to read a guest article that I contributed to H. J. Ruiz’s blog about birds and birding.
To see more of my photographic prowess, click on my Flickr logo a the right of this page.
Texas Tweeties by Bob Zeller 