CLEVELAND, Ohio – It’s interesting to discover how little we know about one of the world’s most common and abundant sparrows, the dark-eyed junco.

This fascinating little black-and-white “snowbird” that visits our backyard bird feeders throughout the winter months in Northeast Ohio is the subject of a recently released documentary film that I had the pleasure of watching this week.

The 1-1/2-hour DVD/online video, “The Ordinary Extraordinary Junco,” was produced by a team of biology researchers at Indiana University. It’s an entertaining and informative presentation of decades worth of studies of these beloved visitors from the boreal forests of Canada.

The video explores the behavior and genetics of juncos, focusing on the evolution of the wide diversity seen among these songbirds throughout North America.

The Oregon race of the dark-eyed junco sometimes ventures into NE Ohio.

For instance, I was surprised to learn there are six distinct junco plumages, but all are variations of the same species that descended from a different species, the yellow-eyed junco of Southeast Arizona and Mexico.

Pete Dunne, our premier birding author, captures the distinct behavior of juncos like this:

“An active, agile, but methodical feeder … usually tame, but when startled, flocks explode into a swirling, twittering, scattering cloud that recalls leaves carried in a wind gust. The bright white outer tail feathers flash conspicuously and disappear as soon as birds land.”

Go here to view a video trailer and download the entire video.

SIGHTINGS

Horned grebes have been feeding in huge numbers along the Lake Erie shoreline.

Northeast Ohio is in the midst of a massive influx of waterfowl on Lake Erie, especially horned grebes. Dozens of grebes were actively feeding in the harbor east of the Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve this past weekend. They were occasionally joined by common and red-breasted mergansers, bufflehead ducks, and large flocks of Bonaparte’s gulls. Jen Brumfield on Wednesday reported that the multitudes of horned grebes remained there, accompanied by two red-necked grebes.

Other lakefront waterfowl included little gulls at Whiskey Island and Edgewater Park; a Pacific loon and flyby harlequin ducks, royal tern and brant at Sunset Park in Willoughby; Northern gannet and long-tailed ducks at the East 55th Street marina; and a red-throated loon and all three scoters at Sims Park, per Brumfield, Jerry Talkington and Haans Petruschke.

While walking the trails at the lakefront preserve, Ashley Heeney spotted a winter wren. The grassland centerpiece of the preserve continues to host sparrows: white-crowned, white-throated, swamp, song, American tree and juncos.