The Ordinary Extraordinary Junco

A fairly recent series of videos released from a multi-partner project team dedicated to studying and educating the world on the dark-eyed junco recently caught my attention. 

The series of eight videos is 88 minutes long, and can be watched piecemeal. 

http://juncoproject.org/

The subject of the project is a bird that you may be familiar with, and if not, I bet you'll notice in your surroundings after watching the videos. 

These videos provide insight into modern-day field ornithology about one particular species. As you'll see, with as much as people know about birds, each discovery in nature spawns a new series of questions. 

Below is a photo I recently took of an Oregon Junco in the Presidio. Plain, yet beautiful...ordinary, yet extraordinary. 

I have my own personal connection to the junco because I shot one for no reason when I was about 10 years old. It was winter in Wisconsin. The bird, hopping innocently on the ground, was fully entrusted to the safety of the environs of our backyard feeder. I hid around the house corner with my BB gun and fired. My aim was good, and it instantly died. I walked to pick it up, and I studied it. That one action taught me so much about the fragility of life, the consequences of a senseless action, the weight of a bird, the softness of feathers.

I don't think I talked to anyone about that act that day. In fact, I don't think I talked to anyone about it until about a year ago. I have been too ashamed. Yet, I might be learning that that one action was probably one of the formative moments that led me to a lifetime of working to help nature while teaching people what I can along the way.

Dark-eyed (Oregon) junco, Presidio, June 2012.