Blog de Puree

Some dark-eyed junkos appeared at our house for the first time since our moving in a few years ago. They’re cute, chubby little suckers. One of them seems to be excited by the sunflower seeds on the ground and on the tree stump in the back yard, while the other is fixated on the thistle nut-cake feeder on the fence.

It looks like a couple because one is darker than the other, which means that the female is probably the lighter of the two. They have the tell-tale light-colored bellies and pale bills.

Apparently, the dark-eyed junko is common to suburban and rural feeders (I’d put us somewhere in between). They also like brush piles and other standing piles for daytime safety and nighttime roosting. I suspect that with the large tree stump we brought to the back, some small piles of rocks we have in the back corner of our yard, and the fact that our saplings are starting to look like trees, we have the beginnings of a desirable little habitat.

These little birds are a welcome addition to the neighborhood and a nice break from the local mafia of house sparrows that seem to take over when migrating from yard to yard.