I've had some queries, so here are links to some photos online (none by me) of Cassiar-type Juncos:
An adult male, all gray but with contrasty hood (Bill Schmoker, Colorado):
http://www.schmoker.org/BirdPics/Photos/Sparrows/CassiarDEJU3.jpgThis one shows the convex hood and the contrasting pinkish sides with the clear line between the two (Mark Szantyr, CT):
http://www.oceanwanderers.com/Oct1993.JPGFrom the same source, this bird shows the brownish mantle that oftn goes along with the pinkish sides on the birds that are not adult males:
http://www.oceanwanderers.com/Jan2003A.jpgAgain, Cassiar is an intergrade form in a very mush taxonomic cluster. I have chosen to classify pretty much all the juncos I see in TN that show "western" characters (especially the hood) as "Cassiar" in eBird. Juncos are a lumpy genetic stew, and it is pointless to pretend that there are clean lines between these types or that there is any such thing as a "pure" Cassiar Junco. Banding returns do indicate that birds from the general Cassiar area tend to migrate long distances easterly and southeasterly towards and across the Mississippi. Birds from the "Oregon" and "Pink-sided" areas are more inclined to just head south with not so much of an eastern tendency. And the "Gray-headed" Birds mostly just migrate vertically, staying within the Rocky Mountain region, much as the "Carolina" Juncos do in the southern Appalachians.
Bill Pulliam
Hohenwald TN
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