Guadalupe Junco

The Guadalupe junco has a dull grayish head with a gray bill and brownish upperparts. Its wings and tail are blackish, though the tail has white edges. Its underparts are white with a rufous fringe at the bottom of the wings. It makes a high, sharp sik and a long series of chipping notes. This bird is today found mainly in the Guadalupe cypress (Cupressus guadalupensis) groves on Guadalupe Island, with a few birds in the remaining Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) stands. Around 1900, it was known to utilize almost any habitat for breeding. It ranged over the whole island for feeding then, and indeed still does theoretically, but actually only a handful of flocks exist, mostly in the northern part of the island. A testimony to the adaptability of this species is the fact that, today, a few birds breed at the seashore in non-native tree tobacco (Nicotiana glauca) shrubs, since this is dense enough to provide some protection from feral cats. The breeding season is from February to June. Three to four eggs are laid in a bulky cup nest of dried grass stems, which is either in a depression in the ground or in the lower branches of a tree. The eggs are greenish-white with reddish-brown spots. If food is plentiful, the birds apparently breed twice a year.