OREGON JUNCO 1061 



3 Hemipteria in 3 stomachs; 9 adiilt and 11 larval Coleoptera in 4 

 stomachs; 2 adult and 36 larval Lepidoptera; 1 Diptcra; 4 Hymenoptera, 

 all being ants; 1 spider; 134 weed seeds, a number of which were 

 from sunflowers; nimierous plant fragments." 



Martin, Zim, and Nelson (1951) report the analysis of 265 Oregon 

 junco stomachs, most of them collected in winter in California. They 

 say that in California cultivated {Avena sativa) and wild oats (A. 

 fatus and A. harbata) make up 10 to 25 percent of the fall and winter 

 food, with common chickweed (Stellaria media) being equally impor- 

 tant. Cultivated and wild barley {Hordeum vulgare) amount to 5 to 

 10 percent of fall and winter food, as do the small, shiny seeds of 

 various pigweeds (Amaranthus sp.). The black shiny seeds of both 

 redmaid {Calandrinia caulescens) and minerslettuce (Alontia j^erfoli- 

 ata) are prominent spring foods; also eaten in season are cryptantha 

 (Cryptantha sp.), goosefoot {Eleusine sp.), knotweed {Polygonum sp.), 

 filaree {Erodium sp.), and melicgrass (Melica sp.) ; with lesser amounts 

 of pine {Pinus sp.), silene {Silene sp.), wheat {Triticum sp.), eriogonum 

 {Eriogonum sp.), annual bluegrass {Poa annua), star-thistle (for the 

 most part Centaurea melitensis), mayweed (Anthemis cotula), scarlet 

 pimpernel (Anagallis sp.), sheepsorrel (Rumex acetosella for the most 

 part, also called sour grass or red sorrel), woodsorrel (the most abun- 

 dant being Oxalis stricta), tarweeds (Madia and Hemizona sp.). Pacific 

 poisonoak {Toxicodendrum diversilobum) , and plant gaUs. 



Of 39 Oregon juncos Lowell Adams (1947) trapped as a part of a 

 study of damage caused to seeds of forest trees, the stomachs of six 

 contained Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga taxifolia) seeds. Lincoln Ellison 

 (1934) says that at the Priest River Forest Experiment Station in 

 northern Idaho juncos became active about the seedbeds soon after 

 they were uncovered in the spring, and they ate "In order of preference, 

 the seeds [of]: Western white pine, Pinus monticola; Douglas fir, 

 Pseudotsuga taxifolia; western larch, Larix occidentalis * * * . 



"From the appearance of the nipped cotyledons of some young white 

 pine and Douglas fir seedlings, it was surmised that the juncos had 

 picked off the attached seeds which still contained some nutrient 

 matter." 



Mrs. H. J. Taylor (1920) watched a red-breasted sapsucker (Sphyra- 

 picus varius subsp.) working and feeding in an old pepper tree (Schinus 

 molle). Sap exuded from the holes the sapsucker made and attracted 

 insects. If the sapsucker was absent, other birds including the Oregon 

 junco fed from the holes, whether on the sap or on insects, Mrs. 

 Taylor was unable to tell. 



S. G. Jewett (1938) notes Oregon juncos among the small birds 

 drinking and bathing in the highly mineralized water flowing from 



