OREGON JUNCO 1069 



and J. caniceps) busily searching the ground for fallen seeds- Of all the species 

 that I met with, the Juncos were decidedly the most abundant. They were to 

 be seen everyAvhere; it was hard to find a spot they did not like; but these were 

 their favorite haunts. Among the pines on the hills, or in the thickets of willows 

 down the river, they were in small parties, but here they were in large flocks. 

 They moved about a good deal, straggling along one or two at a time, though 

 occasionally a number would fly in a tolerably compact flock. They were shyer 

 and more restless than J. hyemalis, and quicker in their motions. 



Batclielder noticed ^no difference in^ the habits of the Oregon and 

 gray-headed juncos. "They were always together in the same flocks, 

 and seemed on the best of terms." Undoubtedly most of the win- 

 tering Oregon juncos he saw belonged to the race montanus, which 

 Miller Cl941b) considers the predominant "dark-headed" Oregon 

 junco wintering in this region, 



Grinnell and Wythe (1927) say of the race thurberi: "Abundant 

 winter visitant throughout the whole [San Francisco] Bay region. 

 * * * Inhabit tree-covered areas, showing preference for conifers, 

 but also affecting oaks and eucalyptus, where they forage in scatter- 

 ing companies either in the foliage or on the ground beneath or 

 adjacently." 



Jean M. Linsdale (1929) writes: "Some birds, for example juncos, 

 regularly roost at night in crevices in road-cuts. The dark bare 

 soil of roads and their banks is often freed of snow sooner in winter 

 than vegetation-covered adjacent ground. Birds seek out such 

 places." Many of the migratory Oregon juncos Linsdale (1949) and 

 coworkers banded at the Hastings Reservation, Calif., were retrapped 

 again in succeeding winters which suggests that individuals tend to 

 winter in the same place year after year. 



Distribution 



Montana Oregon Junco (/. o. montanus) 



Range. — British Columbia and Alberta south to northern Mexico and 

 central Texas. 



Breeding range. — The Montana Oregon junco breeds from central 

 interior British Columbia (Hazelton district, near Takla Lake, Mc- 

 Gregor River) and extreme western Alberta (Yellowhead Pass, Banff, 

 Didsbury) south through interior British Columbia (east from crests 

 of coast ranges) and eastern Washington (east of Cascade Range) to 

 central and northeastern Oregon (Maury Mountains, Home), central 

 western Idaho (Heath, Lardo), and northwestern Montana (near 

 Florence, St. Marys Lake). (Breeds and hybridizes, sporadically, 

 in parts of the breeding ranges of J. h. cismontanus and J. h. hyemalis , 

 north to Circle, Alaska, and Fort McMurray, northern Alberta.) 



