Junco Gender Identification (1 Viewer)

[dickybird]

I was wondering if you can reliably distinguish male from female juncos. I generally think the dark gray points to male and brown to female but it seems like there are a lot of in-betweeners to confuse me.

Here's a recent one from Rochester, MN.

Thanks in advance.

Richard McLeod

 

[Gretchen]

A quick answer is yes males and females are different, but juncos vary so much regionally that it's hard to be absolute regarding one bird - unless one is familiar with them locally I guess. (As a matter of fact I think there's a documentary out on variation in juncos because they are one of the songbirds most displaying this.) I would guess that this is a female, but I'm not really up on MN juncos (more familiar with PA ones).

 

[Peter C.]

Some young male Juncos (i.e., born this past season) of the "Slate-coloured" group (of which this is one) often appear very brown, and can often look female; indeed, in fall, some are not sexable by plumage. This individual, however, has distinctly grey head and flanks, so I think this may safely be called a male.

 

[Little SuperBirder]

I agree. Looks like a male.