Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Ruby-crowned Kinglet, male

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Ruby-crowned Kinglet, female

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

One of North America's smallest birds, the Ruby-crowned Kinglet can be recognized by its constant wing-flicking. The male shows its red crown only infrequently.

Cool Facts

• The Ruby-crowned Kinglet is a tiny bird that lays a very large clutch of eggs. Although the eggs themselves weigh only 0.65 g (0.02 oz), an entire clutch can weigh as much as the female herself.

Description

• Size: 9-11 cm (4-4 in)
• Wingspan: 16-18 cm (6-7 in)
• Weight: 5-10 g (0.18-0.35 ounces)

• Tiny bird.
• Dull, olive-green.
• Wingbars.
• Eyering.
• Short tail.
• In constant motion, continually flicking its wings.
• Male with red crown (usually hidden).

Sex Differences

Sexes similar, but female without red crown.

Immature

Immature similar to adult.

Sound

Song a jumble of notes, starting with two or three high "tsees," followed by five or six lower "tur" notes, and ending with repeated "tee-da-lett" phrases. Call a quick "di-dit."

Range

Range Map

© 2003 Cornell Lab of Ornithology

About the map

Summer Range

Breeds from Alaska to Newfoundland, southward to New Hampshire, northern Wisconsin, and central Alberta. Southward in western mountains to southern California, Arizona, and New Mexico.

Winter Range

Winters from Connecticut to southern Kansas, and southward to Florida and southern Mexico. Also throughout West northward to southern Canada.

Food

Small insects and their eggs.

Behavior

Foraging

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

Reproduction

Nest Type

Open cup of moss, feathers, lichen, spider web, bark, twigs, rootlegs, grasses, and conifer needles, lined with feathers, fine grasses, plant down, lichens, and fur. Hanging from, or on tree branch.

Egg Description

Drab white spotted with brown around large end.

Clutch Size

Conservation Status

Common. May be declining in some areas.

Other Names

Roitelet à couronne rubis (French)
Reyezuelo de Rojo, Reyezuelo Monicolorado, Reyezuelo de Coronilla Colorado, Reyezuelo (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Ingold, J. L., and G. E. Wallace. 1994. Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula). In The Birds of North America, No. 119 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.