This is the strangest nest placement I have seen from my juncos so far. The setting is a meadow with scattered corn lilies, an area favored by the cattle that sometimes graze in my field sites. The holes you see in the dirt are footprints left by cow hooves in the soft ground.
Tough Little Birds
Research on Dark-eyed Juncos and why animals do what they do
Tough Little Birds 
I love the creativity of the nest location!
“Creative” is exactly the right word – as in, “How… creative of you!” or “Well, that’s… creative.” Creative in its secondary meaning of, “Not the way I would have thought to do it, because it seems like a pretty bad idea.”
To give the juncos credit, though, this nest was not found by any predators, so their creativity worked!
Isn’t it great when a plan works?
What is the trade-off between nesting on the ground vs. nesting in a tree or on a cliff, and why is the best choice different for different species? I would have thought that nests in high places are safer from predators, but maybe they are just easier to find if your predators can climb or fly.
This answer was getting VERY long, so if you’ll bear with me, I’ll answer you fully in a post soon. Thanks for the question!