GRAY-HEADED JUNCO 1119 



mately 20 weeks, March 15 to July 31, 3 weeks less than that of 

 dor sails. 



While timing early morning singing in the ponderosa pine forest, 

 June 6, 1954, I recorded the first song of caniceps at 4:23 a.m., 16 

 minutes after sunrise and 55 minutes after the first birds, western 

 flycatcher and common nighthawk, were heard. I heard notes of 12 

 additional species before the junco's first song. 



Field marks. — Juncos usually are readily distinguished from other 

 small birds occurring in their range by the combination of white outer 

 tail feathers and the characteristic "tic" notes they almost invariably 

 give in fhght. The combination of mahogany-red saddle, light gray 

 head, and gray sides distinguishes the gray-headed from all other 

 juncos except those that breed south of its breeding range. Some 

 races of the Oregon junco have somewhat reddish backs, but their 

 heads are black or nearly so. The "pink-sided" Oregon junco {J. o. 

 mearnsi) has a light gray head, but its back is browmish with almost 

 no hint of red, and its sides are distinctly reddish, more so than those 

 of the black-headed Oregons. If the lighter gray head fails to dis- 

 tinguish the gray-headed from the slate-colored and the white-winged 

 juncos when the red back is obscured, the lack of a sharp line between 

 gray of breast and grajish-white of abdomen should do so. 



The light, flesh-colored upper mandible of caniceps and its slightly 

 darker head, "light neutral gray and neutral gray" of Miller (1941b), 

 distinguish that race from the more southern dorsalis with its blackish 

 upper mandible and "pale or pallid neutral gray" (Miller) head. 

 The breeding gray-heads of the Kaibab Plateau in northern Arizona 

 and of the Zuni Mountains in central western New Mexico are mostly 

 intermediate. This condition is most ob^aous in the color of the upper 

 mandible, which is flesh-colored or pinkish with tip and base black in 

 highly variable proportions, as described by Miller (1941b), who later 

 (1949) terms the Kaibab birds "a single hybrid swarm, not a geo- 

 graphic gradient either of blending or of alternating characters or 

 both." 



The pale upper mandible readily distinguishes those J. c. caniceps 

 wintering in southern Arizona from the resident Mexican junco, but 

 other characteristics must be observed for identification of the few 

 dorsalis which Avinter there. These are, for the Mexican junco: yellow 

 eye, yellowdsh feet and lower mandible, and considerable red on wings; 

 and for the gray-headed junco: dark brown eye, flesh-colored feet, 

 grayish lower mandible, and little or no red on wings. In addition 

 the voices differ considerably. The song of the Mexican is more 

 varied than that of the gray-headed, being described by II. T. Peterson 

 (1948b), in comparison with those of the Oregon and slate-colored 

 juncos, as "a more complicated finch-like song, which involves two 



646-737— 6S—pt. 2 34 



