It is not generally migratory, but sometimes moves to nearby lower elevations during winter.

The female lays three to five pale gray or bluish-white eggs in an open nest of dried grass two to three times a year.

Incubation takes 15 days, and when hatched, the chicks are ready to leave the nest two weeks later.

This bird's diet consists mainly of seeds, berries and insects.

The yellow-eyed junco was formally described in 1831 by the German naturalist Johann Georg Wagler from a specimen collected in Mexico.