SLATE-COLORED JUNCO 
By T. GILBERT PEARSON 
The National Association of Audubon Societies 
Educational Leaflet No. 96 
HE coming of Autumn brings many changes 
in the bird world. The Orioles and Tanagers 
depart. The Warblers leave and other famil- 
iar birds of summer disappear. 
Then comes the White-throated Sparrow, 
the Tree sparrow, the Sapsucker, and other 
visitors from the North. Among these new 
arrivals, but not the first to appear, is the 
Slate-colored Junco. In thousands of door- 
yards they are rarely seen until the first fall 
of snow. Upon looking out of the window 
some morning one may see a dozen or more 
little birds flying about in the shrubbery or 
hopping around the doorway, looking for 
seeds or stray crumbs. Other small birds 
have this habit at times, but by the follow- 
ing signs you may know the Junco: 
It is very nearly the size of an English Sparrow with this difference, 
its body is not so large and its tail is slightly longer. Its general color 
is dark gray, except the belly which is white. The bill is flesh colored 
and when it flies white feathers are shown at the sides of the tail. 
This description fits no other bird. Bear these points in mind and 
you cannot miss recognizing the Junco when he comes to visit you. 
This little bird of the winter has many friends. Coming as it does 
at a season when other birds are few, and visiting ^ Winter Bird 
the door-yard as it frequently does, there is small 
wonder that many people know it and hail with pleasure its appearance 
from year to year. “Snowbird” it is often called. 
After the summer birds, and the migrants that are with us only 
for a time have departed, and the bird-life has settled down to the 
usual scant winter population, the Junco appears more in evidence 
than when it first arrived late in September. Then you will find 
them associated in flocks numbering from ten to fifty or more along 
the roadside skirted by thickets or in overgrown fence corners. Fields 
grown up in shrubbery and the borders of wood lands are also favorite 
haunts for these small winter neighbors. Here you will see them 
hopping about on 'the ground or alighting on limbs or stakes. Always 
they seem to be in such places that upon the call of danger they can 
dart by a short flight into the friendly cover of shrubbery or trees. 
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