Moving north from the Socorro, NM area we arrive in Santa Fe, and one of my favorite places to bird in Santa Fe is the Randall Davey Audubon Sanctuary at the end of Canyon Road.  The sanctuary has several feeders out and they attract a variety of birds, some of which I’m going to display.  These photos were taken right around Christmas when snow is almost invariably on the ground.

This first bird is a Townsend’s solitaire and I included the photo not because of its quality, but because for me it’s a fairly rare bird and I’ve never seen one in New Mexico previously.

Townsends Solitaire

This next bird is a Mountain chickadee, a bird that we have here in the Pacific Northwest but that I’ve never seen visit our yard.  I have seen one at the Reifel Refuge in British Columbia and at Washington Park here in Anacortes, and I’ve had friends who have had these birds visit their yards but I can’t seen to attract one!  They are almost always in evidence at the Randall Davey Sanctuary.

Mountain Chicadee

Now we get into the interesting aspects of bird observations at the Randall Davey Sanctuary.  There are at least four different races of Dark-eyed juncos at the sanctuary and I think I probably photographed four.  This next bird, and the one that follows it, are the Gray-headed race.

This one can be identified fairly easily by the brown patches on the shoulders and on the top of the head (if you look closely).

Dark-Eyed Junco, Gray-Headed Race

This next bird is also of the Gray-headed race as evidenced by the brown crown.

Dark-Eyed Junco, Gray-headed Race

This next bird is rather interesting.  It’s a Dark-eyed junco and it probably has to be of the Slate-colored race, but it differs significantly from Sibley’s illustration in that it has a shorter bib.

Dark-Eyed Junco, Slate-Colored Race

And here is a Dark-eyed junco of the Oregon race which is the most common junco we have in Skagit County, WA.

Dark-Eyed Junco – Oregon Race

Finally we come to what I consider a mystery junco in that the photograph, at least from my limited knowledge, doesn’t reveal enough of the bird to make a definitive determination as to its race.  It could be another Oregon junco (which would be my guess) or perhaps a Pink-sided junco,, both of which are found in this area.

And if you’re not thoroughly confused by the junco races yet, you should know that there are White-winged, Red-backed and several other variations all of which can be found in the general New Mexico area!