Date: 4/20/26 12:42 am From: Michael Perrone via groups.io <michaelperrone10...> Subject: Re: [centralvalleybirds] Breeding Dark-eyed Junco
In the past few years--for the first time, I believe-- juncos have nested at UC Davis in a redwood grove and in a shady spot along Willowbank ditch in south Davis. That second pair fledged young. Last spring one sang endlessly for weeks in the sping in a line of redwoods at Slide Hill Park, but found no mate and left the site for parts unknown.
I was boggled a few years ago to find juncos apparently nesting in a residential area on Point Loma in San Diego. They have adapted to urban forests.
Michael Perrone Davis
On Saturday, April 18, 2026 at 03:31:46 PM PDT, kuschmanfred via groups.io <makusch...> wrote:
In the almost 40 years I have lived in this location I have only very rarely seen a Dark-eyed Junco in my garden next to the riparian woodland of Putah Creek. A small group would overwinter quite consistently in a small area about half mile upstream from me, feeding often on the crushed olives on my neighbor’s driveway. They seem to have left a little while ago. So I was quite surprised when a female Dark-eyed Junco flushed today out of a low weedy bank next to my trail directly behind my house and only 10 feet away from the creek. When I carefully checked I found a cup nest with three eggs tucked behind a small tuft of grass built into the dirt of the bank about 1-2 ft above my trail. How common is it to have juncos nest in our area?
Manfred Kusch
3 miles west of Davis
South bank of Putah Creek
