Golden-crowned Kinglet

Golden-crowned Kinglet, male

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Golden-crowned Kinglet, female

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1. Description
2. Sound
3. Conservation Status
4. Other Names
5. Cool Facts
6. Full detailed species account

A tiny, continuously active bird, the Golden-crowned Kinglet is most frequently found in coniferous woods. Despite being barely larger than a hummingbird, the kinglet winters northward to Canada and Alaska.

Description

• Tiny bird.
• Dull, olive-green on back.
• Whitish below.
• Wingbars.
• Black stripe through eyes, white eyebrow.
• Crown yellow, orange centered in male (often hidden), bordered in black.
• Short tail.
• In constant motion, continually flicking its wings.

• Size: 8-11 cm (3-4 in)
• Wingspan: 14-18 cm (6-7 in)
• Weight: 4-8 g (0.14-0.28 ounces)

Sex Differences

Sexes similar, but male with orange center to yellow crown (often hidden).

Sound

Song a series of rising thin, high-pitched notes, followed by a lower musical warble. Call a short series (usually three) of very high notes, "tsee, tsee, tsee."

Conservation Status

Common. Declining in West, increasing in East.

Other Names

Le Roitelet à couronne dorée (French)
Reyezuelo de Oro, Reyezuelo Moñidorado, Reyezuelo de Coronilla Dorada, Reyezuelo Coronadorada (Spanish)

Cool Facts

• Formerly breeding almost exclusively in the remote, boreal spruce-fir forests of North America, the diminutive Golden-crowned Kinglet has been expanding its breeding range southward into spruce plantings in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.
• The Golden-crowned Kinglet usually raises two large broods of young, despite the short nesting season of the northern boreal forest.

• The female Golden-crowned Kinglet feeds her large brood only on the first day after they leave the nest. She then starts laying the second set of eggs while the male takes care of the first brood. Despite having eight or nine young to feed, the male manages to feed them, himself, and occasionally the incubating female too.

• Each of the Golden-crowned Kinglet's nostrils are covered by a single, tiny feather.

Sources used to construct this page:

Ingold, J. L., and R. Galati. 1997. Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa). In The Birds of North America, No. 301 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.