Five days left in our challenge... Today I thought it was time for a Junco-palooza. Our ubiquitous Dark-eyed Junco has many many subspecies, with subtly different plumages - decades ago we called our eastern form the Slate-colored Junco. During our April trip to Arizona we were excited to find another species, the Yellow-eyed Junco, up in the higher elevations of Mount Lemmon, near Tucson. Then in the low elevations of the Chiricahua Mountains, we saw the Gray-headed subspecies of the Dark-eyed Junco, and if we'd been paying closer attention, we might also have seen the Red-backed subspecies. And as a bonus, I've included the Volcano Junco from Costa Rica, which we saw in December 2023.

Clockwise spiral from upper left: Yellow-eyed Junco, Junco phaeonotus,
Volcano Junco, Junco vulcani, Dark-eyed Junco: Gray-headed ssp, Junco hyemalis caniceps,  
Red-backed ssp., J. h. dorsalis, and Slate-colored ssp. J. h. hyemalis

The low angle of the sun in winter (at 41.5 degrees north latitude anyway) means you can get that "golden hour" lighting even in late morning. This female Ruddy Duck was one of a pair floating on a pond at the fish hatchery the other day, and the light was beautiful. The male was there also, but mostly with his head tucked under his wing.

Ruddy Duck, Oxyura jamaicensis,
Quinebaug Valley fish hatchery, Plainville Connecticut