Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4, @ 120 mm, 1/640s, f/5
Yeees, we got it all back! As you can easily see a huge area of clouds moved through here today and left us with a fresh cover of snow. With the snow came the Dark-eyed Juncos back, who had left us already during the last days with warmer temperatures. This medium-sized sparrow has twelve subspecies and can have many geographic color variations, but here we see mostly the “slate-colored”. The Dark-eyed Junco is my #1 “winter indicator”. In late fall or early winter they show up usually a few hours before we get the first snow. The juncos we see here in Iowa during the winter breed probably in Canada or northern Minnesota.
The photo was made through my office window, hence the slightly softer appearance of the bird. I have a small bird feeder next to the window and I use a deer antler for the birds to perch.