Episode 30: Dark-Eyed Junco – Voice of the Wild

Dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis). 

Fleeing the chill of the arctic winter, the junco arrives in the Midwest just as our winds get brisk and the leaves start turning. Look for their little pale bill and white-edged tail as they pick beneath birdfeeders and flit around winter woodlands, cemeteries, and parks. 

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The following Cornell Lab | Macaulay Library recordings were used in this episode: 

• Dark-eyed junco song by Wil Hershberger (ML509728)
• Dark-eyed junco second song by Wil Hershberger (ML509729)
• Dark-eyed junco call by Matt Wistrand (XC606100) 
• Dark-eyed junco second call by Matt Wistrand (XC609231) 

Sources and more: 

• https://xeno-canto.org/606100 
• https://xeno-canto.org/609231 
• https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Dark-Eyed_Junco/ 
• https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/dark-eyed-junco 
• Dobson, Colin et al. Field Guide to Hotspots and Birds in Illinois. Champaign-Urbana: Scissortail LLC, 2023. Print. 
• Godfrey, Michael A, John Farrand, and Roger Tory Peterson. Videoguide to the Birds of North America. New York, N.Y: MasterVision, 1985. Film. 
• Peterson, Roger Tory, and Virginia Marie Peterson. A Field Guide to the Birds: A Completely New Guide to All the Birds of Eastern and Central North America. Fourth edition, completely revised and enlarged. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1980. Print. 
• Sibley, David. Sibley Birds East: Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America. Second edition. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016. Print 

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Brisk winds and turning leaves bring flocks of little stone-gray birds. They’re fleeing to the midwest winter - it's a paradise, if only compared to the chill of the arctic forests where they spent their summer. They’ll flash the white edges of their tails as they forage through neighborhoods, cemeteries, and winter woodlands in flocks large and small. Look for their little pale bill as they pick beneath birdfeeders or, after a good snow, along the side of the road after the plow has come through.

This is the dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis) from the family of new-world sparrows, Passerellidae. The Junco gives a variety of calls and other non-song vocalizations, they range from a strong chuck to metallic tinkling and complex kiss-like squeaks. These are all commonly heard through the fall and winter. A little less common in this time period is their song, a loose musical trill, listen for that vocalization on warm, late winter afternoons that promise spring’s return. Here’s the junco again.

Thank you to the Macaulay library at the Cornell lab for the Junco’s song and Matt Wistrand on xeno-canto.org for the various juncos calls. You can find a link to those in the description. And thank you for tuning in to learn a new wild voice with Illinois Extension.