[Tweeters] Cassiar Junco/ and a good (general) Junco species radiation resource

[Hilary Barnes]

Avibase shows the taxonomic status of the Cassiar Junco as "a subspecies of Junco hyemalis [hyemalis, carolinensis or cismontanus]"
 
Is this the best place to look for taxonomic info? I did a not-so-satisfactory web search for authoritative info.
 
However, as I'm snowed in and hosting Juncos at my feeders, I ventured a bit down the rabbit hole of Junco taxonomy. I'll wait to hear what the experts have to say about Cassiar Junco, but I found stumbled on  a resource of Indiana University Ordinary Extraordinary Junco https://juncoproject.org/ which has some interesting Vimeo segments on North American Juncon diversity and evolution. It does not include Cassiar Junco...I guess that's another story...but traces Juncos of the US back to a common ancestor in the Yellow-eyed Junco of Mexico.
 
 
Check out “(3) Diversification I: the Dark-eyed Juncos” from Ordinary Extraordinary Junco on Vimeo.

The video is available for your viewing pleasure at https://vimeo.com/58782474
 
Time to go outside!
 
Hilary Barnes
habarnes at earthlink.net
206-331-6058 cell