Juncos in the Revelstoke Alpine

May - September 2015

Dark-eyed Juncos are a common passerine species in Britsh Colombia and are known for the diverse ecosystems they live and breed within, particularly at a wide range of elevations in the mountainous ecosystems of BC.

I spent the summer of 2015 working as a field assistant for Jennifer Greenwood, a Ph.D. student in Dr. Kathy Martin’s lab at UBC, studying Dark-eyed Juncos in the mountains surrounding Revelstoke, BC.

Her study was focused on studying the reproductive phenology of the birds at different elevations to try and determine whether or not the difference in elevation lead to a difference in reproductive strategy. This involved tracking different breeding pairs across steep alpine terrain in order to find their nests and then using mist-nets to capture, band and bleed the birds.