Vermont Rare Bird Reports 2025

N/A

Cold and snowing

Nikon D500 with Nikon 200-500mm lens

I have been a birder in Vermont for 7 years and participated in Feeder Watch for several years. We put feeders and ground seed out every winter, and Dark-eyed Junco visits are frequent and numerous, so I am very familiar with this bird. I have taken and edited almost 400 pictures of Juncos over this time. I know these birds, their appearance and their behaviors, pretty well. I took this (and other) picture because the bird immediately stood out as a stranger. I have seen it multiple times since, and photographed it multiple times since. I reviewed online content predominantly in Audubon and the various Cornell Labs birding sites. I submitted checklist S288472992 with this picture to eBird.

I have a rural property adjacent to Putnam State Forest about 2 miles outside of Grafton, VT. Habitats include mixed deciduous/ coniferous forest, edge of forest, low brush and fields. Many fruit trees; apple, crabapple, wild cherry, ornamental cherry, hawthorn, sumac, black raspberry, raspberry, domestic blueberry, plus many seed trees; oak, maple, birch, wild cherry, spruce, hemlock, etc.

The bird was observed perching in an apple tree with full feeders hanging under it with bird traffic from other species. Species included Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, Tufted Titmouse.

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See description of behaviors observed

About 6” in height, similar in size and shape to other slate-grey Juncos. Small pink beak with a black smudge at the tip. Dark black coloring on head and neck which stops abruptly below the neck. Buff, Brown and black back, white undersides with black wings. No ring bars, eye rings, or other distinguishing characteristics.

Crown - black. Cheeks - black. Eyes - black. Throat - black. Nape - black.

Feet brown; bill short and pink.

Buff and brown

Buff and brown

Black, no wing bars

White

Black with wire feathers on the outside edges of tail. The white feathers flash when he flies.

This bird was clearly a variation of a Dark-eyed Junco that I had not seen before. I have seen leucistic birds and others with pigment anomalies, so I assumed initially that was the case with this bird. I used Google lens to see if there were an obvious ID; Google just identified it as a Dark-eyed Junco. I posted my picture in Reddit to get feedback on ID and within minutes a user identity as an Oregon Junco. I was not familiar with this variety of Junco, so I did further research and found a comprehensive discussion of all the varieties of Juncos in North America and where their ranges were. From this I was confident of the bird ID and was sure it was out of its normal range in Vermont. I submitted a checklist with a picture of the bird to eBird, and sent a subsequent note highlighting my find and the picture and asked if my id was accurate. I have not yet heard back from eBird. This morning I saw a video of a sighting of a Bullocks Oriole in Southern Vermont, which led me here to report this sighting. I hope this is helpful.