I’m studying the red-breasted Nuthatch. However, all I see is the dark-eyed junco. The junco is a common bird at the feeder. No two are alike. Some are about as big as a robin, some small and delicate. they love the feeder and the seeds that fall on the ground. They spend equal time between the feeder and ground. their habits are easy to spot, recognize and follow. They are the most yielding bird at the feeder. They wait their turn, don’t linger, and yield when several juncos approach at the same time.
In my yard are four feeders, plus a suet cage. A dozen or more juncos will be darting about the yard at any given time. Given that I’ve replenished the feeders which I do about ever two or three days.
as the dark-eyed junco.
Lately, We’ve noticed a white bird cutting across the yard, landing in the trees, and joining the other birds at the feeders front and back including the suet. This white one has caught our eye. It’s so different yet blends in quite well like a first cousin. The sighting of this white bird is so brief that I never have my camera ready, phone or DSLR, and forget about binoculars. Even my eyeglasses are somewhere else when it comes around. What I notice is that it’s not all white but sort of specked with black streaks. No black hood like the dark-eyed junco and it’s not a nuthatch which is too small and has a black streak across the eye.
No, this bird is different from the rest, even the chickadee, yet similar as birds do flock together. today I spotted it in the backyard by the feeder. Up at the feeder then down to the ground feeding on the dropped seeds. Finally, I grabbed my DSLR and took horrible pictures. then my phone camera and nailed a few good shots. Enough to put through Google Lens and identify it. At first return, Google Lens detected it to be a White backed Nuthatch. That’s it! No, the size is wrong and the habits not quite right. Also, nuthatch has very uniform coloring, not speckled and streaked.
I tried again and came up with a leucistic dark-eyed junco. Leucistic? This is a rare dark-eyed junco with a genetic variation not unlike albinism. With leucism, there is partial absence of pigmentation or color in the plumage. It’s a mutation that affects 1 in 30,000 birds. My white little guy displaying all the habits of the junco turns out to be a rare variation of the dark-eyed junco.
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