Attack of The Oregon Juncos

male Oregon Junco

The little bird above is officially called a Dark-eyed Junco of the "Oregon" race. Here in the Pacific Northwest, it is just referred to as an Oregon Junco. They are everywhere in the forested areas of Western Washington. Not as frequently found in the inner city areas they are also more and more found in the suburbs, small towns, and rural areas. They are the "country sparrows," as opposed to other types of small, ubiquitous and extremely cheeky backyard birds. Click here for more information about the many races of Dark-eyed Juncos, including the Oregon Junco. Click on this page and select "Oregon race" to hear its song. Click here for a gorgeous painting of this little fellow. And read this page to see what early 20th Century ornithologists had to say about the Oregon Juncos.

Here at the ranch, the only experience we have had of these little cuties has been positive, until recently. They splash about in the bird baths, eat weed seeds and insects, nest under the back porch and in the woodlot -- and they buzz the front porch and sing to us from the railings and hanging plants and sometimes from the back of the patio furniture. Awfully cute and sweet.

Until now, that is. It's nesting season and we have a pair of birds anxious to keep all other birds away from their possible home site -- which unfortunately might be one of our cars!!!As you can see in this photo, the red car [my old convertible] is on the left and the black coupe is on the right. You can see on the mirror of the black car there are colored cloths rubber-banded to the mirror. All three of our cars have the mirrors covered with stretchy socks or rags and towels.

Why, you ask? Because the birds have been attacking the mirrors!! The covering didn't really help, so we set up an old makeup mirror on the hood of the red car.

This move took a while to attract their attention. The birds still visit the black car and find the shiny paint job just too irresistible. They look into the windows and run back and forth, they hang on the license plate and peck at the chrome, they cling to the satellite radio antenna and chirp sweetly.

It took a few days, but the makeup mirror is popular with the pair. We uncovered the driver's side mirror and now these little bird-brains run from the makeup mirror across the rag top, hop down to the left edge of the car, run into the driver's mirror, peck and flutter like crazy, then hop/fly over to the makeup mirror and attack it, wings flapping, beak flashing and pecking at it!!! This behavior will go on between the two as long as the sun is shining during the day. When a sudden shower of hail or rain or a heavy rain shower rolls through, they disappear to their hiding place and wait out the storm. As soon as the sun reappears or the clouds lighten up and the rain stops, they take turns back at their "station." The intense wing flapping, chirping and frantic running back and forth continues. What a show!

I found a video of an Oregon Junco behaving the same way on another car. My pictures were sort of illustrative of the situation, but this video will give you a great closeup of this bizarre behavior. Enjoy and be glad you aren't also being attacked by these determined little creatures.

Thank you for visiting!