GRAY-HEADED JUNCO 1117 



they can be counted, varies from eight to twenty or more. The qnnlity is rather 

 musical, decidedly more so than the quality of the Chipping Sparrow. There arc 

 occasional variations in time, with the notes at the beginning f ;ister or slower, and 

 pitch sometimes varies up or down a half-tone or a tone. 



Occasional individuals have some peculiar abnormal form of the song, some- 

 times so different that one must see the bird to be sure of identification. Such 

 individuals seem to sing in that way always, and may be known and followed from 

 year to year by the peculiarity. An individual has little variation in its singing. 



Early in the spring, when singing first begins, one may sometimes find a Junco 

 singing a faint, varied song with mixed pitches. It is a highly attractive song 

 when one is near enough to hear it clearly, but I am inclined to think it is primitive 

 in character. 



In winter, birds produce a note like "tsehehehe" which is rather musical and 

 pleasing. Alarm notes are "tsick" and "tulutattip" the latter used commonly 

 when the nest contains young, but rarely heard from winter birds. 



In the Colorado foothill ponderosa pine forest where both J. c. 

 caniceps and the chipping sparrow are numerous, I found that fre- 

 quently the quality of a less musical song of the junco matches 

 the chipping sparrow's song so well that distinguishing unseen birds is 

 extremely difficult, even when the two are singing simultaneously. 

 They can usually be told apart by the timing and duration of the songs. 

 The junco's song generally consists of 1%- to 2-second trills, given eight 

 to ten per minute, while the chipping sparrow's are of approximately 

 three seconds duration given four to six times per minute. Later in 

 July I found this relative timing not completely reliable when a sup- 

 posed junco near a known junco's nest at timberline and singing at 

 the rate of eight trills of 1 K to 2 seconds duration per mmute turned 

 out to be a chipping sparrow. It sang 191 times in 24 minutes, 

 stopped for IK minutes, then resumed singing. Not only was this 

 sparrow singing the junco's song, but it was 3,000 feet above its usual 

 foothill habitat. 



I consider the song of the gray-headed junco more varied than that 

 of the slate-colored. A gray-head in early spring. Mar. 29, 1960, in its 

 breeding habitat sang three different songs, all of the more musical, 

 "junco" quality, averaging ten per minute. One variation, lasting 

 approximately two seconds, consisted of a two-part trill, swe-swe-swe- 

 swe-swe-te-te-te-te-te; the second, approximately one second long, was 

 a simple trill of seven or eight notes, te-te-te-te-te-te-te, like the second 

 part of the longer song; and the third, also of one second's duration, 

 resembled the first part of the longer song, swe-swe-swe-swe-swe-swe. 

 Another song, heard the next day at the same place, alternated two 

 simple trills, one quite musical, typically "junco," and the otiicr less 

 musical, much like the chipping sparrow's. Four or five of these 

 alternating trills comprised a series. 



Joe T. Marshall, Jr. (pers. comm.) recorded an early July song of a 

 dorsalis singing at noon and later in the day near the top of a dead as- 



