Juncos and White-throats

     Dark-eyed juncos and white-throated sparrows have arrived in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania for another winter.  They arrive here about the middle of October and I always celebrate their arrival and enjoy their presence.
     Juncos and white-throats are two adaptable and abundant species of the sparrow tribe of birds that nest farther north, but come here for winter, as throughout much of the eastern United States.  In winter they can be seen most anywhere there are tall weeds and grasses, often together in mixed groups, where they eat the seeds of those plants, or seeds in bird feeders on lawns that have coniferous trees and clumps of bushes they use for shelter.  Both species are attractive and interesting through the winter, but by early May they are on their way north to their nesting territories.
     Juncos and I go way back to my childhood.  I would see them flutter among tall weeds in our garden.  They are gray birds with white under parts and a white tail feather on both sides of their tails that form a V that is visible when flying away from us.  Someone once said juncos, or snowbirds as they are called sometimes, have gray winter skies on top and snow beneath. 
     A little later in my life, I would see juncos in planted patches of young spruce or pine trees, where they vanished into the shadows of needled boughs, amid excited chirping, with their white V's being the last visible part of them.  I could hear them fluttering about among those conifers, and chipping and trilling almost incessantly.  Juncos are always neat to experience, even when not visible.  After a bit, if I was still and quiet, they would exit those evergreens, one after another, to eat seeds in nearby clumps of weeds and grasses.  Little groups of juncos spend winter nights in the sheltering boughs of coniferous trees.      
     White-throats are well-named because they do have white throats, and dark and lighter stripes lengthwise on their crowns.  But the feathering on the rest of their bodies is brown and darker streaked, which camouflages them among dead, dry winter vegetation. 
      White-throats scratch among fallen leaves and grasses under shrubbery and other tall vegetation for seeds, making quite a ruckus as they feed.  All the while they are digging and consuming seeds, they utter musical notes and sweet songs, which give away their presence to us, and predators that keep them forever vigilant, as all wildlife is. 
     White-throat's songs begin with a single, long note, followed by another long whistle on a higher pitch, followed by five short notes on the same pitch as the second long one, resulting in an identifying, heart-warming melody that one doesn't forget.  Their songs are the best part of experiencing these little birds.
     Juncos and white-throats patronize most every feeder, even in some city neighborhoods, erected to feed birds through winter, much to the delight of the people who watch for birds at feeders.  These two species, being ground-feeders, mostly ingest seeds that were thrown from the feeders by other kinds of birds that scratch about on the feeders themselves.            
     Watch for juncos and white-throats this winter and succeeding ones.  They are delightful and entertaining in suburbs, woodland edges, clumps of planted conifers and in the thickets of hedgerows between fields.