This tiny songbird, hardly larger than a hummingbird, is very active; it habitually flicks its wings nervously. It can be found all over North America, breeding in the Boreal range from Alaska and across Canada, and wintering in the southern United States and just into the tip of Mexico. But here in Vancouver, and indeed down along the west coast, it can be found year-round.
Adult Male (spring/summer)
The Golden-crowned Kinglet has a very conspicuously striped face: a black eyeline, a definitive white supercilium, and another black stripe on either side of the bright, yellow crown. The orange feathers in the crown identify mature males. Nape, mantle and uppertail coverts pale olive; yellow edges to black flight feathers of wing and tail; a thin white wing bar and bold dark bar across bases of secondaries. Breast and belly are pale gray and undertail coverts white. Black legs, flesh coloured feet and small-flattened black bill.
Adult Female (spring/summer)
The adult female is identical in plumage to the male, but her crest is entirely yellow.
Juvenile
The juvenile lacks any gold in the crown: it is a dull-olive; its back may have a bit of brown wash.
General:
Tiny, rounded-bodied songbird. Length: 8-11cm. Wing: 14-18cm. Weight: 4-8grams.
Behaviour:
Golden-crowned Kinglets tend to flock with other small birds when foraging, and one will often find them among chickadees, creepers, and nuthatches. Hunting small insects, insect eggs and spiders, they glean their food off branches and leaves, hovering at the tip or hanging upside down. Generally these birds tend to forage higher in the canopy in summer and lower in winter and during migration.
Habitat:
Dense and mature coniferous forest is the preferred habitat of Golden-crowned Kinglets, particularly during the breeding season. During migration and winter it can be found in mixed woodlands. This small songbird can survive winter temperatures of -40 Fahrenheit.
Information:
Golden-crowned Kinglets in the west, compared to eastern populations, tend to be smaller but with longer bills, are slightly greener on the upper parts with the white supercilium extending back to the nape. Its nest is a globular cup, half-hanging from outer branches; it is made of spider silk, moss, lichen, twigs, and leaves. The female incubates around 8-9 eggs (cream white with dark spots) for about 2 weeks. Interestingly, these birds can raise 2 broods per season; after the first young have fledged, the female starts straight away on her second clutch. The thin and high-pitched voice of this kinglet, begins with a shrill “tsee tsee tsee” before tumbling down into a chickadee-like babble.
Similar species:
Ruby-crowned Kinglet.
Conservation Status:
Recently, these birds have been slowly expanding their breeding range into the northeastern US. And at the moment, the Golden-crowned Kinglet has a status of Least Concern. Some studies show western populations in decline and eastern ones rising, but more information is needed.
Capture Rates
A year-round resident of the Lower Mainland, the Golden-crowned Kinglet prefers mixed coniferous-deciduous forests as seen on the perimeter of Colony Farm. Capture rates occur prior to and following the breeding season, peaking in November when this species joins mixed foraging flocks around the banding station.
Molt Summary:
PF: HY partial; PB: AHY complete; PA absent
Preformative molt includes 0 – 4 inner gr covs, but usually no terts or rects
Molt limits are often very hard to detect.
Juveniles lack yellow or orange in the crown and have a brownish cast to the upperparts, loosely textured undertail coverts, and a yellowish roof of the mouth (upper mandible). Juvenile M=F
The wing coverts of this ASY bird in April are uniformly adult with fresh, green edging and distinct white tips. Outer primary coverts are relatively broad and truncate with distinct and broad greenish-olive edging.
The tail of the ASY bird above is showing broad and truncate rectrices. Note that adult rectrices can have a small point on the tips.
Tail shape is more reliable in kinglets than many other species and should be used in conjunction with the overall appearance of the primary coverts.