Hi All,
Carol Weiss, Rockland Audubon Society's recorder of rare and unusual birds in Rockland Co., received the following report from Doris Metraux. "On Friday afternoon I was puzzled by something bright white in one of my shrubs. A White-winged Junco (Junco hyemalis aikeni) was giving me a frontal view. The bird clearly wanted to come for my seed which I throw on the ground. When he changed his location and briefly perched on a flowerbox I got a good look until one of my ordinary juncos became very belligerent and chased him away. Since I have no picture my description will have to do: He was quite a bit larger than his wintering cousins, had a snow-white belly, a bone-colored big bill, black lores and was otherwise pale gray with a light brown wash on his back. He also had two very distinct wingbars on each side. " Doris is longtime RAS member and a very experienced, reliable observer. She lives in the Stony Point area of Rockland Co., NY. As I was not familiar with this subspecies in southern New York, I checked a few sources for previous County records. The Oregon and Pink-sided forms have been recorded sporadically from Rockland Co., but I could find no previous records of the White-wing form. According to Bull's Birds of New York State (1998 edition, ed. Levine), there were no know records of the White-winged form from NY State. The winter range of this form appears to be restricted to the Great Plains and adjacent mountain states. Levine does mention that approximately 2-3% of the Slate-colored Juncos have white on the wings, but still can be separated by size (aikeni is larger). My question: are there any list members familiar with this form? If so, are you aware of any previous records in our area? I guess I now need to start checking all of those juncos a little more closely! Alan Wells Rockland Audubon Society -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
