We have whole flocks of juncos, chickadees, finches, pine siskins, purple finches, plus sparrows, several varieties of woodpeckers, cardinals, jays, mourning doves, a pair of Carolina wrens (with sharp attitudes and beaks to match, lol), a couple of mockingbirds after raisins and suet, lots of titmice, nuthatches and plenty of robins at the birdbath water. There are also a few bluebirds in the yard getting drinks out of the pond tho they haven't visited any of the feeders. I don't have any mealworms for them, I don't know what they are eating. I feed lots of black oil sunflower, two feeders of thistle and some scratch feed for the ground feeders (doves, sparrows, and other seed eaters). They are going thru 20 lbs of seed in about 4 days.

The "slate-colored" is actually just a subspecies of the Dark-eyed Junco. So you actually have a Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) no matter which subspecies it is. The subspecies exist as populations in certain regions of the country. Those listed in my field guide are: 1.) Pink-sided 2.) Oregon 3.) Gray-headed 4.) Slate-colored Each subspecies looks a little different. As for the slate-colored (the subspecies I see in my location), the first-winter males look very similar to the adult females (brown instead of slate gray). They can be difficult to age and sex unless it's the adult male, and the adult male is dark slate gray with a white belly and white outer tail feathers. Very distinct plumage on the slate-colored Dark-eyed Junco.

I had only a few this year and most of them have left. :(

I'm getting ready to put up 2 more seed feeders, one hanging from the underside of the deck as the nyjer feeder does, and one window mounted. Its a walkout basement situation. I'll be using black oil sunflower seeds in the hanging feeder (its the Brome Squirrel Buster Standard) and I haven't decided, either sunflower chips/hearts or more black oil sunflower seeds in the window-mounted feeder. Will the Juncos be drawn more to those feeders than to the nyjer? I could mount the window feeder lower on the window to be nearer ground level if it might attract them away from the nyjer feeder. There are at least a couple of them that want to feed at the feeder now. I don't know if they are always the SAME couple but never more than 2 on the tube. I wouldn't mind except they insist on driving the goldfinches away. The VAST majority of them are happy on the ground. There does seem to be plenty of seed for them there, I can see it through the window even in the grass. The juncos like to fly up to my window and perch on the edge of it and peer in. I don't know why but they do. So flying INTO the window shouldn't be an issue. I've actually never seen a bird fly into a window, except once at someone else's house where they had a giant picture window that was in direct line with a patio door. I'm pretty sure the bird thought it was flying towards the trees it could see in the backyard through both windows. Otherwise I've never had a bird fly into a window. It kind of freaked me out the first time I heard one land - I thought one had flown into the window after all, but there was nothing there by the time I looked. When I heard the scritching sound the next time, I looked around and there was a junco just perched on the lip of the window looking at me out of the side of his head. Every now and then one will pop up and perch there for a few seconds before flying off. I have NO idea why. They're perched on the lip of the upper half of the window, not on the sill. It's kind of strange, LOL!