Neighborhood Bird Project Report Species Highlight #1: Dark-eyed Junco

Dark-eyed Junco | Boe Baty

This article is based on our report Fewer and Fewer, which pulls from findings of the Neighborhood Bird Project. 

One of the most ubiquitous little neighborhood birds in the Seattle area, the Dark-eyed Junco is a common sight in backyard habitats, urban parks, and at bird feeders. In the springtime, they are also often the cause of many calls to our organization from concerned bird-lovers, who find their small grassy nests in a newly planted hanging flower pot, a rain boot, or some other inconvenient location.

If you’ve noticed an increase in junco activity in the Seattle area, you’re not imagining things. According to our recently released Neighborhood Bird Project report, which analyzes 20 years of bird count data collected by community scientists at eight different urban parks across the city of Seattle, these dark-hooded little sparrows had a cumulative increase of more than 400%, increasing from an average of 0.6 individuals per survey to 3.2 individuals per survey by 2023, making it our fastest growing bird species over the last two decades.

Despite their common-ness and recent growth in urban Seattle, Dark-eyed Juncos are not immune to the threats that songbirds face. In fact, their numbers are declining overall: Researchers from Cornell University estimate that the North American Dark-eyed Junco population declined by 43% between 1970 to 2017.

Urban bird lovers can help Seattle’s most common backyard bird with small, easy-to-achieve actions.

Keep Cats Indoors: Juncos spend much of their time on ground, foraging for small insects, seeds, and berries, which makes them susceptible to predation by domestic, free-roaming cats. Keeping our frisky felines indoors, in catios, or allowing for only supervised outdoor time can save juncos and other wildlife from early death. If there are outdoor cats in your neighborhood, consider removing feeders or other attractants that might lure birds into danger (birds do not need us to feed them).

Live WITH not Against Wildlife: Back to those ill-placed nests. Female juncos are not picky when finding nests sites, often choosing cozy spots on or near the ground with ample cover. So if you do happen to come across a nest made of grass, moss, bark fiber, and hair, in your flower pot or under a tarp somewhere, leave it alone and enjoy the fact that there’s a little junco working hard to bring the next generation to the urban habitat. The whole process should take no more than 4-5 weeks.