Biology:White-winged junco

Short description: Subspecies of bird

Junco hyemalis aikeni
Conservation status
Apparently Secure (NatureServe)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Passerellidae
Genus:	Junco
Species:	J. hyemalis
Subspecies:	J. h. aikeni
Trinomial name
Junco hyemalis aikeni Ridgway, 1873
Synonyms
Junco aikeni

The white-winged junco (Junco hyemalis aikeni) is a subspecies of the dark-eyed junco. It is superficially similar to the slate-colored juncos. It was formerly classified as a separate species.

It is a common endemic breeder in the Black Hills area of South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Montana, and winters south along the Front Range to northeastern New Mexico.

Junco hyemalis aikeni resembles the slate-colored juncos, but is larger, lighter gray (the head plumage contrasting with the dark lores), has much more white in the tail, and has a larger, longer bill that often has a bluish cast. Females are paler and washed brownish. Most fresh (fall/winter) individuals have the white wingbars that give this taxon its common name, but this feature is not always present, especially in spring and summer on females, as the white tips to the wing coverts easily wear off. About one slate-colored junco in 200 has wing bars as bold as those of a fresh white-winged junco. Therefore, using wingbars alone to identify a bird as a white-winged junco outside the breeding range is ill-advised; identifications must be based on all the relevant characteristics.

References

• Cornell Lab of Ornithology (CLO) (2002): Bird Guide - Dark-eyed junco. Retrieved 2007-JAN-20.
• Sibley, David Allen (2000): The Sibley Guide to Birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. ISBN:0-679-45122-6

Wikidata ☰ Q7994394 entry