Since Nanny and I both had a "sort of Oregon Junco, thought I'd look into it a bit more. Found out this stuff when someone else on the Illinois listserv posted some information.
Interesting tidbits on some Junco Hybrid identifications.
First of all, Check out the different types of scientific groups and subspecies in this link about checklinks:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/corrections/Nov08overview
From AmericanBirding.org about hybrids:
Quoting:
An intriguing avian case-study involves the so-called Cassiar Junco (Junco hyemalis cismontanus), possibly a stable hybrid population that arose from contact between the nominate hyemalis subspecies of Slate-colored Junco and the shufeldti (=montanus) race of Oregon. Whether the Cassiar Junco should be recognized as a “good” phylogenetic species is open to debate; but regardless of the final determination, the evolutionary process
at work here is fascinating. (It is illogical, by the way, to place the intermediate Cassiar Junco within the Slate-colored Junco subspeciesgroup— a practice that was adopted by the A.O.U. in 1957.)
another discussion on Cassiar Juco
http://www.oceanwanderers.com/JuncoID.html
