Bird
Dark-eyed Junco
Junco hyemalis
Lives in West Virginia all year and nests here. Found in all 55 counties, across 15 habitats.
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 55 counties
- Habitats
- 15

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 55 counties
- Habitats
- 15
- Habitat models
- Summer, Winter
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in West Virginia 15
Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Disturbed and introduced wetlands
Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.
Forests and open woodlands on dry ridges and slopes, often oak or pine.
Floodplain and bottomland forests
Forests on low ground beside rivers and streams that flood from time to time.
Borders of forests, clearings and shrubby thickets.
Granite and other acidic rock outcrops
Bare or thin-soil rock on granite, gneiss, sandstone, quartzite and similar acidic rock, including granite flatrocks and domes.
Shady, evergreen forests of eastern or Carolina hemlock, often along rocky mountain streams and in gorges.
Forests between dry and moist, often oak-hickory on slopes.
Forests on moist but not wet ground, such as rich slopes and ravines.
Treeless grassy or shrubby summits and ridges in the high mountains.
Sheltered, moist mountain hollows and lower slopes with deep, fertile soil.
Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground
Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.
Steep, sun-baked slopes of loose shale with sparse oaks and Virginia pine and their own endemic wildflowers. Linked only where the source names shale barrens; calcareous shale stays with the limestone glades.
Cool, evergreen forests of red spruce and Fraser fir on the highest mountains.
Streams, rivers and their banks
Flowing water and its banks, bars and rocky shoals.
Tree plantations and managed pine
Planted or intensively managed stands of pine or hardwoods grown for timber; a land use rather than a natural community.
Other habitats in its models (103)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in West Virginia.
- Developed, Low Intensity Winter.
- Developed, Medium Intensity Winter.
- Central Interior Calcareous Cliff and Talus Summer and winter.
- Central Interior Acidic Cliff and Talus Summer and winter.
- North-Central Appalachian Circumneutral Cliff and Talus Summer and winter.
- Southern Piedmont Cliff Summer and winter.
- Southern Appalachian Montane Cliff Summer and winter.
- Southern Interior Calcareous Cliff Winter.
- Southern Appalachian Rocky Summit Summer and winter.
- Southern Appalachian Granitic Dome Winter.
- Southern Piedmont Granite Flatrock Summer and winter.
- Central and Southern Appalachian Northern Hardwood Forest Summer.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Limestone Forest Summer.
- Northeastern Interior Dry Oak Forest-Hardwood Modifier Summer.
- Northeastern Interior Dry Oak Forest - Mixed Modifier Summer and winter.
- Ridge and Valley Calcareous Valley Bottom Glade and Woodland Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Black Belt Calcareous Prairie and Woodland - Herbaceous Modifier Winter.
- Southern Interior Low Plateau Dry-Mesic Oak Forest Summer.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Dry Upland Hardwood Forest Summer.
- Crosstimbers Oak Forest and Woodland Winter.
- North-Central Interior Dry-Mesic Oak Forest and Woodland Summer.
- North-Central Interior Dry Oak Forest and Woodland Summer.
- North-Central Interior Beech-Maple Forest Summer.
- North-Central Interior Maple-Basswood Forest Summer.
- East-Central Texas Plains Post Oak Savanna and Woodland Winter.
- Edwards Plateau Limestone Savanna and Woodland Summer and winter.
- Western Great Plains Wooded Draw and Ravine Winter.
- Southern Piedmont Mesic Forest Summer.
- Southern Piedmont Dry Oak-(Pine) Forest - Hardwood Modifier Summer.
- Northeastern Interior Dry Oak Forest - Virginia/Pitch Pine Modifier Summer and winter.
- Southern Piedmont Dry Oak-(Pine) Forest - Loblolly Pine Modifier Summer.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Dry Upland Hardwood Forest - Offsite Pine Modifier Summer.
- Allegheny-Cumberland Dry Oak Forest and Woodland - Pine Modifier Summer.
- Southern Ridge and Valley Dry Calcareous Forest - Pine modifier Summer.
- Southern Piedmont Dry Oak-(Pine) Forest - Mixed Modifier Summer.
- Southern Piedmont Dry Oak-Heath Forest - Mixed Modifier Summer.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Upland Longleaf Pine Forest and Woodland Winter.
- Central Interior Highlands Dry Acidic Glade and Barrens Summer and winter.
- Southern Piedmont Dry Oak-(Pine) Forest Summer.
- Acadian Low-Elevation Spruce-Fir-Hardwood Forest Summer.
- Southern Ridge and Valley Dry Calcareous Forest Summer.
- Northern Crowley's Ridge Sand Forest Winter.
- Florida Longleaf Pine Sandhill - Open Understory Modifier Winter.
- Florida Longleaf Pine Sandhill - Scrub/Shrub Understory Modifier Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Fall-Line Sandhills Longleaf Pine Woodland - Loblolly Modifier Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Fall-line Sandhills Longleaf Pine Woodland - Open Understory Modifier Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Fall-line Sandhills Longleaf Pine Woodland - Scrub/Shrub Understory Modifier Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Upland Longleaf Pine Woodland - Loblolly Modifier Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Upland Longleaf Pine Woodland - Open Understory Modifier Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Upland Longleaf Pine Woodland - Scrub/Shrub Modifier Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Upland Longleaf Pine Woodland Winter.
- Southern Appalachian Low Mountain Pine Forest Summer.
- Ozark-Ouachita Shortleaf Pine-Bluestem Woodland Winter.
- North-Central Interior Oak Savanna Summer and winter.
- North-Central Oak Barrens Summer and winter.
- Southern Piedmont Glade and Barrens Summer and winter.
- Nashville Basin Limestone Glade Winter.
- Cumberland Sandstone Glade and Barrens Summer and winter.
- Central Appalachian Alkaline Glade and Woodland Summer and winter.
- Central Interior Highlands Calcareous Glade and Barrens Summer and winter.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Catahoula Barrens Winter.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Nepheline Syenite Glade Winter.
- Western Great Plains Mesquite Woodland and Shrubland Winter.
- Eastern Highland Rim Prairie and Barrens - Dry Modifier Winter.
- Central Mixedgrass Prairie Summer.
- North-Central Interior Sand and Gravel Tallgrass Prairie Summer.
- Arkansas Valley Prairie and Woodland Winter.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Calcareous Prairie Winter.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Calcareous Prairie Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Jackson Prairie and Woodland Winter.
- Recently Logged Areas Summer and winter.
- Harvested Forest - Grass/Forb Regeneration Summer and winter.
- Recently Burned Summer and winter.
- Recently Burned Forest Summer and winter.
- Recently Burned Grassland Summer.
- Recently Burned Shrubland Summer and winter.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Treed Summer.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Shrub Summer and winter.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Forbland Summer and winter.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Annual Grassland Summer and winter.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Perennial Grassland Summer and winter.
- Modified/Managed Southern Tall Grassland Winter.
- Central Interior and Appalachian Shrub-Herbaceous Wetland Systems Summer and winter.
- Southern and Central Appalachian Bog and Fen Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Savanna and Wet Prairie Winter.
- Eastern Great Plains Wet Meadow, Prairie, and Marsh Summer and winter.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Winter.
- Southern Piedmont/Ridge and Valley Upland Depression Swamp Summer and winter.
- Eastern Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer.
- Ozark-Ouachita Riparian Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Jackson Plain Dry Flatwoods - Open Understory Modifier Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods - Offsite Hardwood Modifier Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods - Open Understory Modifier Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods - Scrub/Shrub Understory Modifier Winter.
- Central Atlantic Coastal Plain Wet Longleaf Pine Savanna and Flatwoods Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Wet Pine Savanna and Flatwoods Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods Winter.
- South-Central Interior / Upper Coastal Plain Wet Flatwoods Winter.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Pine-Hardwood Flatwoods Winter.
- North-Central Interior Wet Flatwoods Winter.
- Lower Mississippi River Flatwoods Winter.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Nonriverine Wet Hardwood Flatwoods Winter.
Seasons in West Virginia
- Year-round: nests here, in 33 of 55 counties.
- Winter: does not nest here, in 40 of 55 counties.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 693
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in West Virginia. Shared habitat, not food.
- Mountain LaurelKalmia latifolia
- Red MapleAcer rubrum
- Chestnut OakQuercus prinus
- Northern Red OakQuercus rubra
- Sweet BirchBetula lenta
- Hillside BlueberryVaccinium pallidum
- Poverty OatgrassDanthonia spicata
- Black HuckleberryGaylussacia baccata
- SourwoodOxydendrum arboreum
- Wavy HairgrassAvenella flexuosa
- White AshFraxinus americana
- Eastern TeaberryGaultheria procumbens
- Box HuckleberryGaylussacia brachycera
- American Hop-hornbeamOstrya virginiana
- Virginia PinePinus virginiana
- Eastern HemlockTsuga canadensis
- Sugar MapleAcer saccharum
- Pennsylvania SedgeCarex pensylvanica
- Variable SedgeCarex polymorpha
- Pignut HickoryCarya glabra
- Sweet-fernComptonia peregrina
- Flowering DogwoodCornus florida
- GalaxGalax urceolata
- American Witch-hazelHamamelis virginiana
Wildlife 212
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in West Virginia. Not sighting records.
- Baltimore OrioleIcterus galbula
- Belted KingfisherMegaceryle alcyon
- Blue GrosbeakPasserina caerulea
- Blue JayCyanocitta cristata
- Blue-gray GnatcatcherPolioptila caerulea
- Common GrackleQuiscalus quiscula
- Fox SparrowPasserella iliaca
- Gray CatbirdDumetella carolinensis
- Least FlycatcherEmpidonax minimus
- Mourning DoveZenaida macroura
- Northern FlickerColaptes auratus
- Northern MockingbirdMimus polyglottos
- Olive-sided FlycatcherContopus cooperi
- Orange-crowned WarblerVermivora celata
- Ruby-throated HummingbirdArchilochus colubris
- Spotted SandpiperActitis macularius
- Tufted TitmouseBaeolophus bicolor
- Wild TurkeyMeleagris gallopavo
- Black-and-White WarblerMniotilta varia
- Black-billed CuckooCoccyzus erythropthalmus
- Black-capped ChickadeePoecile atricapillus
- Brown ThrasherToxostoma rufum
- Carolina WrenThryothorus ludovicianus
- Chestnut-sided WarblerDendroica pensylvanica
NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP winter habitat model for Dark-eyed Junco Elevation up to 2,500 m
- USGS Gap Analysis Project range maps (2001), modeled by watershed; migratory gives no dates
- NatureServe Explorer (CC BY 4.0), habitat names
- US Census TIGER/Line counties
- Names follow the USGS Gap Analysis Project (2001)














































