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Post by Randy on Jan 18, 2018 7:27:54 GMT -8
Great and enlightening discussion! So is there agreement that Bert's bird above is also a male Cassiar?
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Post by paulos on Jan 18, 2018 8:13:30 GMT -8
Judging by Sibley's photos, I am wondering if Bert's junco could be a darker slate-coloured female. Though the apparent line of the darker portion of the hood could mean it is a male Cassiar. Is the Oregon-like slightly darker hood possible on female slate-colours? Maybe someone has a clearer idea here.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2018 10:28:57 GMT -8
Bert's bird is still a mystery to me.
I think it's maybe more likely a darker female Slate-colored with an irregular shape to the lower bib, than a male Cassiar.. But looking at the whole photo, my impression (I could be wrong!) is that the true colours are probably darker than the photo makes them, which would reduce somewhat the likelihood of female Slate-colored, though I do see some females that are quite a bit darker than others.
As for the line Paulos refers to, Sibley does show female Slate-colored with a distinctly darker hood contrasting with llghter back. In fact that line should be there on all forms of juncos we're likely to see except male Slate-colored Juncos.
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Post by paulos on Jan 20, 2018 6:37:35 GMT -8
Thanks in no small part to this discussion I have been paying closer attention to the myriad of juncos in our yard and neighbourhood. I did find a Cassiar male with a gray back, gray sides and a dark Oregon-like hood (my only picture turned out very blurry). Before I might have ignored such a bird as probably Oregon, looking just for slate-coloured features, like the shape of the hood. I found two female slate-coloured juncos as well.
It seems the original junco here might be unidentifiable - sharing characteristics of Oregon and Slate-coloured, but not matching a Cassiar. I'll change my record.
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