Educate Yourself About the Golden-crowned Kinglet and Other Kinglets
Golden-crowned Kinglet
The Golden-crowned Kinglet has a yellow crown patch, black stripe running through the eye, tiny body, olive-gray above with wing bars, and a stubby tail. Its length is 4in (10cm). Its wingspan is 7in (18.5cm) Its voice is a song consisting of 3-4 high calls, several low calls, and a chant, “tee tee tee tew tew tew tew, ti-dadee, ti-dadee, ti-dadee”. Their eggs are white with reddish specks, with 1 clutch consisting of 7-9 or (5-11) eggs.The Female incubates for about 12 days, and fledging time is around 12 days. Both male and female feed their young. Male and female look alike.
The Golden-crowned Kinglet is a tiny bird (smaller than a chickadee) that can be easily overlooked, but is very common all across the U.S. These energetic birds are also hard to spot because they spend most of their time hovering above high tops of conifers, and branch tips, but also flitting about in high shrubs.
If you spot a kinglet, you will notice that they seem to be unafraid of humans, try holding out a leafy branch of elderberry, and they will completely ignore you, and concentrate on exploring the foliage instead. If you are lucky, you might even get a chance to stroke one of them on its back, if you are close enough.
During the winter time they join mixed flocks of titmice, nuthatches, chickadees, and brown creepers, patrolling the tree tops. They will winter further north than its look-alike Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula) that winters in the southern United States, and northern Mexico.
The Golden-crowned Kinglet will mainly nest in coniferous forests in Canada, and in the western mountains of the United States and New England. The females will winter further south witch make their arrival time a bit later, to choose nesting sites. They will nest high up in tree tops, sometimes as high as 100ft (30m) above the ground.
The Golden-crowned Kinglet is an insect eater, and will enjoy hunting for bark beetles, aphids, caterpillars, spiders, and other delectable insects in trees and shrubs. They build tiny domelike nests, with an opening at the top, and the nests are so small they have to lay the tiny eggs in two layers.
If you like to attract the Golden-crowned Kinglet, and the Ruby-crowned Kinglet to your lovely bird feeding garden, plant elderberry bushes for winter food, and insect-harboring trees such as pines, hemlocks, spruces, and oaks. Also put out suet mixes of suet and cornmeal. They will only visit your bird garden during winter times in most of the United States.
