Cassiar Dark-Eyed Junco Sparrow: When East Meets West Magnet

Of the 40 or so Dark-Eyed Juncos who visit the backyard in the fall and winter, there is the odd nonconformist -- in this case, a Cassiar Dark-Eyed Junco -- an intergrade Slate-Colored X Oregon. Slate-Coloreds are common in the east and the Oregons are the "de factos" Juncos out west -- so this hybrid (perched on the pear tree, keeping warm on our first snowy winter day!) was probably the result of a mating between both species where their breeding ranges overlapped. Photographed in South Delta, British Columbia, Canada during the Polar Vortex of 2016.