If your Dark-eyed Juncos don’t look like the one above, you likely host another of the 15 Dark-eyed Junco subspecies found across the Americas. Grouped into five separate species until the 1970s when the American Ornithologists’ Union determined they were part of the same species, Dark-eyed Juncos sport dramatically different plumage depending on their location.
While Dark-eyed Juncos are common and widespread, only over the last few decades have they established breeding populations in Southern California cities, including San Diego in the 1980s, Los Angeles in the 2000s, and Santa Barbara in the late 2000s. Research focused on these city-dwellers indicates that they’ve rapidly adapted to city life but that their evolution differs in each place. A recent study shows that while Dark-eyed Juncos in all three cities have consistently smaller wings than non-urban birds, only in LA and Santa Barbara do birds have shorter and deeper bills than non-urban birds.