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Golden-crowned Kinglet

Regulus satrapaOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Kinglets (Regulidae)

Golden-crowned Kinglet Breeding Male Portrait
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General

Golden-crowned Kinglet: Very small, warbler-like bird with olive-green to gray upperparts and pale breast. Head has bright orange crown patch bordered with yellow and black, white eyebrows and black bill. Tail is short and wings have two bars. Female and juvenile are similar but have yellow crowns bordered with black.

Range and Habitat

Golden-crowned Kinglet: Common from southern Alaska to central Canada and southeast to the Carolinas; spends winters south to Florida and the Gulf coast. Preferred habitats include dense conifer forests; also found in deciduous and mixed forests.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"tsee-tsee-tsee"

Interesting Facts

  • Each of the Golden-crowned Kinglet's nostrils are covered by a single, tiny feather.
  • Formerly breeding almost exclusively in the remote, boreal spruce-fir forests of North America,ithas been expanding its breeding range southward into spruce plantings in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.
  • They usually raises two large broods of young, despite the short nesting season of the northern boreal forest.
  • A group of kinglets has many collective nouns, including a "castle", "court", "princedom", and "dynasty" of kinglets.


Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Range Map for Golden-crowned Kinglet
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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.
Family
Species Regulus satrapa
Length3.5 - 4 Inches
Wingspan6.75 Inches

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Golden-crowned Kinglet: Very small, warbler-like bird, olive-green to gray upperparts and pale breast. Head has bright orange crown patch bordered with yellow and black, white eyebrows and black bill. Tail is short and wings have two bars. Weak fluttering flight on shallow wing beats.

● Song: "tsee-tsee-tsee"

● Foraging & Feeding: Golden-crowned Kinglet: Eats mainly insects, insect eggs, and seeds; drinks tree sap, sometimes from sapsucker drill wells; forages while moving among branches and leaves, often flicking its wings to flush prey.

● Breeding & nesting: Golden-crowned Kinglet: Five to eleven creamy white eggs, splotched brown or gray, are laid in a nest made of lichens and moss, lined with bark chips, rootlets and feathers, and built on a conifer branch from 30 to 60 feet above the ground. Incubation ranges from 14 to 15 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Golden-crowned Kinglet: Ruby-crowned Kinglet lacks white eyebrows and black eye-line.

Flight Pattern

Weak fluttering flight, alternating rapid shallow wing strokes with a brief pull of wings to sides. Hovers over food before dipping down to pick it up with beak.
Golden-crowned Kinglet Breeding Male Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Golden-crowned Kinglet: Common from southern Alaska to central Canada and southeast to the Carolinas; spends winters south to Florida and the Gulf coast. Preferred habitats include dense conifer forests; also found in deciduous and mixed forests.
BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester
Population
MigrationMigratory
Weight0.2 Ounces