Dark-eyed Junco
Often when we hear about bird migrations, we hear about the epic journeys. The Arctic Tern, for example takes a 44,000-mile round trip each year, nearly from pole to pole, crossing the Atlantic Ocean twice. The Ruby-throated Hummingbird incredibly flies 500 miles across the Gulf of Mexico. Swainson’s Hawk, a summer resident of central and eastern Washington, winters in the Pampas of South America. Once there it radically changes its diet from being a carnivore here in summer to being an insectivore there.
While these are impressive stories, there are also birds that make much shorter migratory journeys, or simply stay at home – the resident species. At this time of year, a large number of Dark-eyed Juncos frequent our yard. Although some Juncos are resident in the Puget Sound area, others migrate up and down the slopes of the Cascades or from the North to South and visa-versa. Additional species that migrate up and down the Cascades include Varied Thrush, Fox, White-crowned and Lincoln’s Sparrows. Known as vertical migration, this journey is about 60 miles long, or 120 miles round trip. It is a scenic route, passing through major river valleys, coniferous forests, and for some, to Alpine meadows.
It always fascinates me to imagine that the Dark-eyed Juncos we see on Cascade Mountain trails in the summer could be the same ones that visit our backyard feeders during the winter. As the first snowfalls hit, watch for these down-slope migrants as they make short trips back to their winter homes.
