Spring is coming. Really.

If we can just hold on a little longer, spring is coming. How do I know? Robins, dark-eyed juncos and rufus-sided towhees are back at the feeders.

Dark-eyed juncos come in many different plumages. You know that they are dark-eyed juncos, though, because they have dark eyes, and they have a yellow beak.

This dark-eyed junco looks more like the next bird, a rufus-sided towhee than the previous junco. But compare the beaks.

Rufus-sided towhees have more distinct wing bars and a dark beak compared to the juncos. They are also a bit larger than juncos.

Also, as I was walking into to library this morning, I heard a crow making a weird ringing “B’Dong! B’Dong! B’Dong! B’Dong!” call. It drew a crowd as people interpreted the call as “Hello! Hello!”If I tried I could kinda hear “Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello!” instead of “B’Dong! B’Dong! B’Dong! B’Dong!” Maybe it was imitating the sounds it heard from the patrons entering the library.

This crow made to most un-crow-like “B’Dong! B’Dong!” call. Some people felt it sounded more like “Hello! Hello!

One man walking by stated that it was “a crow mating call.” I haven’t been able to confirm that crows make a very un-crowlike “B’Dong! B’Dong! B’Dong! B’Dong!” when searching for a mate, but I can’t deny it yet, either. It does say that crows are capable of some very odd sounds, well beyond the classic “caw”.

So hang in there! The weather for the rest of the week should melt off some snow!

Amy Law

March 5, 2015

Colorado Mileposts

birds, Colorado, dark-eyed junco, natural history, towhee, winter

2 responses to “Spring is coming. Really.”

Birds Before the Storm | Colorado In Depth and At Altitude

October 23, 2020

[…] Some of the other forms look even more different — all grey or white. But they all have the dark eye and yellow-pink bill, so they all go in the same species. https://amylaw.blog/2015/03/05/spring-is-coming-really/ […]

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Dark-Eyed Juncos — Evolution in Action | Colorado In Depth and At Altitude

January 17, 2021

[…] Once I had a fancy camera that held bird images still so that I could figure out what I was looking at, I began to learn a lot more about LBJs — Little Brown Jobbies — little birds that are around us but we really don’t pay much attention to. And one of the first LBJ birds I learned about was the Dark-eyed Junco.https://amylaw.blog/2015/03/05/spring-is-coming-really/ […]

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