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They’ve been everywhere: In the woods, in the shrubby areas,
even at the beach.
In my yard, they’ve been high in the trees, low in the bushes and even lower hopping along the
weeds on the ground. That’s not to mention the ones that checked out the deck and patio for morsels.
Yes, kinglets
are passing through on their southward migration. I’ve seen juncos, white-throated sparrows and several types of ducks
this week, but kinglets remain the most faithful sighting.
Kinglets are tiny, non-stop-action birds that glean small
bugs and insect eggs from leaves, tree trunks, bushes and anything else on which a small insect might be found. I’ve
read that kinglets rarely eat seeds, but I’ve seen them hopping along the ground eating the seeds of a weed that annually
takes over my backyard.
We have two types of kinglet in New England, and the United States for that matter: ruby-crowned
kinglet and golden-crowned kinglet. Both are tiny — about four inches long (compare to a chickadee that is 5 1/4 inches)
— and are in fact the smallest birds common to New England, expect for the ruby-throated hummingbird. Even the
hummingbird is only slightly smaller. The kinglets are extremely hardy, however, as many stay with us throughout the winter.
The two kinglet species are very similar to each other; but very different, too. Let me explain.
Ruby-crowned kinglets
are about a quarter of an inch larger. Ruby-crowneds have a light, broken eye-ring; while golden-crowneds have a black eye
stripe. Golden-crowned kinglets are usually seen in evergreens, while ruby-crowned kinglets can be found in just about any
habitat, especially during migration.
Then there are the color differences. Both are rather dull colored (olive green/gray)
overall with white wing bars and bright yellow on their wings and tails. The crown patches is where it gets tricky. With the
ruby-crowned kinglet, males have a bright red patch on the top of their heads and females do not have a crown patch. With
golden-crowned kinglets, males have an orange crown patch outlined with yellow and the females have a yellow crown patch.
For most sightings, however, the color of the crown patch is immaterial as it is only displayed when the bird is excited.
The more useful tool in the field is the eye-ring of the ruby-crowned and the eye stripe of the golden-crowned.
The vast
majority of the kinglets I’ve seen over the last few weeks have been ruby-crowned kinglets. Usually I see a lone kinglet
working a bush or tree, but on a few occasions, I’ve seen large flocks in the woods. During one walk it seemed as if
the woods are alive with kinglets flitting about every tree.
A birdwatcher would be wise to check flocks of kinglets
carefully. Among the dozens of ruby-crowned kinglets in that flock was a lone golden-crowned kinglet.
In general, ruby-crowned
kinglets migrate southward a little earlier than their golden-crowned counterparts. In fact, many golden-crowned kinglets
will stay with us throughout the winter. The occasional ruby-crowned kinglet will stay with us as well.
Got to love a
four-inch bird hardy enough to withstand our winter elements.
You also have to love their reliability during fall migration.
Even the relatively slow birdwalks have been filled with kinglets. Heck, even walks on the driveway have often yielded a kinglet
or two.
My only problem with the sprightly birds is that they are difficult to photograph. They are brave birds and allow
a close approach, but they don’t sit still for even a second. Auto-focus is useless as the bird is long gone by the
time you can trip the shutter. Manual focus is tricky, too, for the same reason. The best way to capture them on film (or
a digital card) is to predict where they will perch next. That can be frustrating, too.
But that’s just a minor
pet peeve about an otherwise dynamo of a bird I look forward to seeing each migration period.
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