MEXICAN (YELLOW-EYED) JUNCO 1127 



JUNCO PHAEONOTUS PALLIATUS Ridg^vay 



Mexican (Yellow-eyed) Junco 



PLATE 61 



Contributed by Oliver L. Austin, Jr. 



Habits 



This resident of the high montane conifer and pine-oak forests from 

 southern Arizona and New Mexico southward through central Mexico 

 to the Guatemalan border is one of the most distinctive and geo- 

 graphically isolated members of the puzzling junco complex. With 

 its red-brown back and gray head and body, it most closely resembles 

 the southern race of the gray-headed junco, dorsalis, from which it 

 differs principally in its bright yellow eye. According to Miller 

 (1941b): 



It occurs in the pine association, Transition Zone, * * * usualh' above 7,000 

 feet, but occasionally as low as 6,000 feet. There is a winter record at 4,000 feet, 

 below the pine belt, for the Santa Catalina Mountains of Arizona. The pine 

 association may have a considerable mixture of deciduous oak. Prominent forest 

 associates are Pinus ponderosa var., Pimis chihuahuana, Pseudolsugn (axifolia, and 

 Abies religiosa. The forest floor which the junco occupies, though perhaps more 

 arid on the average than that in the range of dorsalis, usually consists of pine 

 needles and oak leaves, with some green bushes such as Sym-phoricarpos, Garrya, 

 Rhus, Ceanothus, and brake ferns. 



Though the species is mainly resident and nonmigratorj^, Phillips, 

 Marshall, and Monson (1964) note: "YeUow-eyed Juncos descend 

 below the forest at times, especially in severe weather, and have been 

 noted there from September ig * * * to May 15 * * *." 



Courtship. — The hteratiu'e contains very little about courtship and 

 territoriality in this species, other than H. S. Swarth's (1904) state- 

 ment: "They begin to pair off about the first week of April * * *. In 

 the spring the male bird frequently ascends high in the tree tops, and 

 sits there motionless, uttering his short song at frequent intervals; and 

 two or more may often be seen pursuing one another through the trees, 

 seldom descending to the ground at such times." More details are 

 available in the manuscript notes of James Veghte, who studied this 

 junco in the Chiricahua region of Arizona under the guidance of 

 AKred O. Gross in 1948. Veghte writes: 



"The courtship of the Arizona junco takes place in the middle or 

 latter part of April. During this period the male abandons his ter- 

 restrial environment for the arboreal and sings his sliort song from the 

 tree tops. I watched one male jimco singing for 15 minutes in a large 

 yellow pine at least 60 feet above the ground. These songs apparently 

 play a prominent part in the courtship ritual. 



