Hi, Mike Watson, of the Holden Arboretum, and I, are conducting research to determine if our Ohio breeding Dark-eyed Junco population is migratory or are year round residents. During the past breeding season we banded ten territorial males with both federal and color bands, in four locations. Three of these locations are on Holden property and the fourth was in my yard on Gildersleeve Mountain in Kirtland. Now that the migrant population is well established we have begun our non breeding season observation efforts, per our research protocol. Since the beginning of December we have found three of our banded birds in three locations. We have gotten good documentary photos of two of these individuals. While it is exciting to have these preliminary positive findings it is too early to draw conclusions. We will be banding and collecting data for a planned 5 years, to insure our data are reliable and repeatable. In the coming breeding season we hope to band females and fledgling birds in addition to territorial males. This will help to further define the scope of the resident population if it is indeed resident for multiple years. The Ohio breeding population of Dark-eyed Juncos has exploded in the past 25 years as documented in the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas I and II data. Breeding populations seem to be restricted to Ashtabula, eastern Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Portage and northern Summit counties. Breeding habitat is no longer confined to hemlock hardwood forests or ravines and ledges. It now is far more widespread and nesting Juncos have habituated to human presence. There are numerous reports of them using hanging plants as nest sites in southern Geauga county, and they are well established nesters in some sub-urban neighborhoods. As our field work continues we are learning more and more about these interesting little birds. It has been interesting to see the boundaries of territories and that the birds who were territorial over the summer still respond to territorial songs now that we are half a year removed from when we netted and banded them. Haans ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]