Golden-crowned Kinglet

Regulus satrapa

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family REGULIDAE

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

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.

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.

Description

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

• 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.

• Tail notched.
• Tail feathers dark gray with paler edges.
• Wing feathers edged white.
• Grayish mustache stripe.
• Bill black.
• Eyes dark brown.
• Legs and feet dark brown.
• Soles of feet yellow.

Sex Differences

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

Immature

Similar to adult, but with browner back and without yellow crown.

Similar Species

• Ruby-crowned Kinglet has an eyering, not eyestripes, and is darker on the chest.

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."

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds from southern Alaska and Northwest Territories, eastward to Newfoundland, southward to northern United States and further southward in mountains. Also resident in southern Mexico.

Winter Range

Winters from southern Alaska and southern Canada southward to southern United States and northern Mexico.

Habitat

Breeds in spruce and fir forests, as well as some mixed coniferous-deciduous forests.

Food

Small insects and their eggs.

Behavior

Foraging

Gleans food from tips of branches and bark. Hovers and gleans from foliage.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Deep, open cup of moss, lichen, spider web, and bark strips, lined with feathers, fine grasses, plant down, lichens, and fur. Hangs from twigs in tree.

Egg Description

Drab white spotted with brown.

Clutch Size

3-11 eggs.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless and with only tufts of down.

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)

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.