Pamela Yeh

So a junco is a small, unstreaked sparrow.

And the name comes from its genus name, which is junco.

But they're very, very cute.

They're very common in the US.

And of course, now they've started to colonize urban areas.

More of us are seeing them.

The subspecies that we have has a ground-grade back and wings and a white belly.

And they're very fluffy and very cute.

And they're also called the snowbird because you'll see them popping around in the snow.

Yes, yes, they're great at the feeders.

If you have a feeder and it's hanging, well, you'll often see our other birds perched on the feeder, and then the juncos will eat the bird seed that has been kicked off or fallen off or blown off.

So you'll see a lot of juncos on the ground popping around.

They're just adorable.

Yes, well, on the campus of UCLA,

We have tons of people, undergraduates, lots of faculty and staff.

Of course, we have the whole medical school area, so we also have patients and everybody needs to eat.

And so, as you can imagine, we have a lot of food availability.

And you often see juncos, instead of

On the grasses, you often see them hopping around any place where there are people and food.

Crumbs left over along the trash cans, just even hanging out by the tables waiting for people to leave and they will grab something.