GRAY-HEADED JUNCO 1101 



"The gray-beaded jiinco is the summer resident of the juncos of the 

 region. It occurs in the mountains from 7,000 to 9,000 feet. At 

 lower elevations within the limits mentioned they are found most 

 often in side di'aws arising from main canyons; at higher elevations 

 they frequented the dense cover bordering meadows and occasionally 

 ventured out along the edges of the meadows." Its failure to breed 

 in southern Utah above 9,000 feet and into the spruce-fir of the Htid- 

 sonian Zone to timberline, as it does elsewhere, has not been explained. 

 H. W. Henshaw (1886) found caniceps breeding somewhat lower in 

 New Mexico "ever^'^vhere throughout the timber belt above an 

 altitude of 6,000 feet." 



Owen A. Knorr tells me of an exceptional nesting of caniceps on 

 the University of Colorado campus at Boidder, Colo., in May and 

 June 1955, at the relatively low elevation of 5,400 feet. The nest 

 was on northward-sloping gi-ound in low-gi'owing myrtle (Vinca), 

 near the shaded edge of a ^-acre pond. Tree cover was large American 

 elm, western cottonwood, blue spruce, and a few small Juniperus. 

 Here, on the plains a mile east of the Rocky Mountain foothills, 

 several hundred feet lower than the usual Transition Zone habitat 

 of the species, and only a few yards from a busy road, the birds found 

 suitable conditions and fledged a brood. 



Another low^ nesting, but in normal habitat, is reported by Louise 

 Hering (1954) just within the lower limit of the ponderosa pine forest 

 at approximately 5,900 feet % mile south of Boulder. Junius Hen- 

 derson (1912) mentions a breeding, probably at the same place: 

 "Bragg's summer record of the Gray-headed Junco at Boidder, 

 altitude 5,700 feet, Jidy 4, 1904, shoidd be added to the list, as it 

 indicates a probable breeding record much below the usual elevation," 



For detailed breeding-bird population studies that show the habitat 

 preferences of the graj^-headed junco in the forest associations in the 

 Colorado mountains see Hering (1948, 1954, 1956, 1958, 1961, 1902, 

 1963), Lawhead (1949), Snyder (1950), Cassel (1952), Thatcher (1954, 

 1955a, 1955b, 1956), and Beidleman (1960). These studies, covering 

 all major forest types from 5,500 to 11,200 feet in altitude, show in 

 essence that gray-headed junco populations may be found in varying 

 numbers in forested areas of almost any tree species which are well 

 but not densely stocked, have numerous openings to provide edges, 

 and are not too arid. 



Of the habitat of J. c. dorscdis, MUler (1941b) says: 



There is a largf^ area iu the Mogollon Mountains of Arizona and New Mexico 

 over which the distribution is nearly continuous. In addition to tliis, numerous 

 isolated niountain ranges are occupied, much as in the breeding range of J. c. 

 caniceps. Plant associations in which dorsalis breeds consist of coniferous forests 

 wherein the following types predominate: Pinus ponderosa, Abies, and, less 



