Note that many ordinary dark-eyed juncos of the race native to our area
show some contrast between the "hood" and the back or side color.  Some
of these are females, many are juveniles - streaks on the side tend to
suggest a juvenile.
 
A true junco of the "Oregon" race is usually pretty unmistakable.  There
isn't any subtlety about the difference in color.  It goes from a real
black hood to a real brown back, with a pretty precise line of division.
Paradoxically, identifying juncos of different races often involves
making sure you're not studying the bird too hard.
 
Good birding.
 
Chris Spagnoli
Lakewood
 
P.S.:  At East 72nd yesterday afternoon, a fellow named Jim turned up a
bird he thought might be a Thayer's gull adult, but as we studied it we
noted that it was rather large, had a large beak, had extremely
restricted black in the wingtips - just edging the first two or possibly
three primaries, I think - and, most significantly, had very faint and
slight head streaking.
 
I don't want to get caught up in a rush of identifying questionable
birds as Nelson's hybrids, but it at least was a possibility.
Definitely not the bird reported by Ben Fambrough and photographed by
John Pogacnik, I might add.

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]