For the Birds: Our Smallest Songbirds

Monday, February 3, 2025

Crown of male Golden-crowned Kinglet
Photo by Chris Southwick
Our Smallest Songbirds 
By Christine Southwick

Do you know that we have two songbirds in our area that are smaller than Bushtits but larger than Anna’s Hummingbirds?

We have both Golden-crowned Kinglets and Ruby-crowned Kinglets, which are wing-flicking nimble little birds.

Female Golden-crowned Kinglet- note yellow feet
Photo by Chris Southwick
Both are olive-green, have a crown patch, and constantly flit across leaves and branches looking for their buggy rewards. Both kinglets have two white wing bars, with a black smudge below the second bar, black legs and YELLOW FEET (if they stayed still long enough you might even see those little feet)

Golden-crowned have a striped face pattern and both male and female have erectable yellow crowns, but only males have a orange stripe in the center. In the summertime they stay high up in coniferous forests, making them hard to see, and their high-thin call-note can be hard to hear. They often hover while plucking tiny insects from conifer needle clusters.

Golden-crowned Kinglet
Photo by Craig Kerns
Golden-crowned Kinglets are mostly seen here on lower branches during the wintertime and early spring. They can often be found gleaning insects on deciduous trees like Indian Plum Trees.

Both kinglet species build their nests, with up to eleven eggs (likely high mortality) usually at least 50 feet up, hidden under overhanging branches near the trunk. Most breed in the boreal forests of Canada, but suitably dense and tall forests here in Washington have provided suitable habitat for resident breeding kinglets. 

Both Golden-crowned Kinglets and Ruby-crowned Kinglets can be found from sea level up to 10,000 feet elevation.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Photo by Doug Parrott
The Ruby-crowned Kinglet has a plain face with a bold white eye-ring. Only the males have the erectable red crown.

Ruby-crowned Kinglets are often found with other small birds during winter but are most obvious in the spring and fall when they migrate to/ from their higher elevation breeding locations. During travel they search for bugs on lower branches than the rest of the year.

During March-April, I listen for a “Cheebe cheebe che “ “Cheebe che” of the Ruby-crowned. The Golden-crowned Kinglets have a high repeated buzz. So, listen for the songs of these two kinglets. Often you will hear a kinglet before you see it. Look for these little wing-flicking energetic birds-they are a delight to watch.

Previous For the Birds columns here


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