erie ee DU BeOINgs balay Berson 13 
A Gray-headed Junco in Illinois 
On 9 February 1974 I observed a 
gray-headed junco (Junco caniceps) 
near Lake Springfield, Sangamon 
County. The bird was feeding on an 
open lawn that had a scattering of 
both deciduous and _ coniferous 
trees. Feeding with the gray-headed 
junco were 50 to 60 dark-eyed jun- 
cos, 15 tree sparrows and one field 
sparrow. | 
The gray-headed junco stood out 
immediately—different by the black 
face, chestnut-red saddle, and dif- 
ferent gray color. The bird was 
later observed by Vernon Kleen, 
Dick Sandburg, Patrick Ward, Bill 
O’Brien, Larry Balch, Robert Ran- 
dall, Charlie Clark, and Muriel 
Smith. 
It was soon discovered that the 
bird visited a feeder fairly reg- 
ularly at the residence of D. L. 
O’Keefe, 26 Fox Mill Lane, Spring- 
field. Mr. O’Keefe informed us that 
the junco with the reddish back 
had been present approximately 
two weeks. 
Photographs and movies of the 
bird were attempted; on Feb. 26 I 
caught the bird in a mist net at the 
O’Keefe residence. Vernon Kleen 
took a series of photographs (see 
front cover) of the bird in the hand. 
I took a description as follows: 
lower mandible pinkish, upper 
mandible pinkish with black tip; 
lores and upper part of chin black; 
head, throat, breast, sides, flanks, 
wing coverts, and rump gray; back 
with chestnut-red saddle sharply 
delineated from gray (on close ex- 
amination, the chestnut feathers 
were tipped with gray); belly part- 
ly diffused gray and whitish (no 
sharp delineation between breast 
and belly or belly and sides); pri- 
maries and inner tail feathers black- 
ish, two outer tail feathers on each 
side mostly white; under tail cov- 
erts whitish; tarsi brown, toes 
black; mouth lining pinkish. Meas- 
urements: wing 80mm, tail 69mm, 
bill from anterior portion of the 
nostril) 742mm, tarsus 18mm. While 
in the hand the bird gave a chip- 
note than sounded like “nuck.” 
This bird was fairly aggressive 
and was seen on several occasions 
to chase or drive away dark-eyed 
juncos. The bird preferred to feed 
on the ground. It was last seen by 
the O’Keefe’s on March 25, 1974. 
The gray-headed junco breeds in 
the mountains of Nevada, Utah and 
southern Wyoming, south to Ari- 
zona, New Mexico and western 
Texas and winters south to north- 
ern Sinoloa and northern Durango. 
J.c. caniceps is casual east to south- 
central Nebraska and central Okla- 
homa (A.O.U., 1957). There are also 
records east to Minnesota, Arkan- 
sas, and Louisiana (Amer. Birds). 
There is a recent record from Ohio 
(per. com. with Vernon Kleen), and 
Karl Bartel reported banding a 
gray-headed junco at Blue Island, 
Cook County, on May 8, 1965 (per. 
com.). 
There are two subspecies of Junco 
caniceps which can be separated 
by head color and color of upper 
mandible (Miller, 1941). Head color 
could not be used since I had no 
comparison specimens on hand. The 
bill color is that depicted by Miller 
(1941) as an integrate between J. c. 
canipceps and J.c. dorsalis, leaning 
heavily toward J. c. caniceps (see 
figure 2, no. 4, Miller, 1941). J. c. 
darsolis is essentially non-migra- 
tory and more southern; J. c. cani- 
ceps is migratory and the northern 
form. 
—H. David Bohlen, Illinois State Museum, Springfield 62706 
