Daily Bird: Ruby-crowned Kinglet & Golden-crowned Kinglet

This painting of Golden-crowned Kinglet, left, and Ruby-crowned Kinglet is by Patrick J. Lynch.

Golden-crowned Kinglet
Regulus satrapa

Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Regulus calendula

by Greg Hanisek
January 20, 2021 — Small and spritely — that sums up North America’s two kinglets, the Golden-crowned Kinglet and the Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

They’re similar in size and overall greenish color, but significant differences make them easy to tell apart with a good look — or listen. Both have wing bars, so concentrate on the head.

The Ruby-crowned Kinglet is quite plain-headed with the exception of a prominent eye ring. Its bright red crest tuft is usually hidden. The Golden-crowned has a distinctively patterned head with a thin black eye line, a prominent white supercillium (eye brow), a black lateral crown stripe and a yellow (female) or yellow-and-orange (male) crown.

Their voices are also distinctive. The call notes, heard any time of year, are very high-pitched and often delivered in three’s for the Golden-crowned. The Ruby-crowned’s call is a much different, slightly harsh, chatter.

Ruby Crowned Kinglet, by Gilles Carter.

The songs, heard on territory and also on spring migration, follow a similar pattern.

The Golden-crowned’s starts out very high before descending a bit. The Ruby-crowned, more inclined to sing on migration, has a long, jumbled song that seems more than a bird its size should possess. Listen for the Ruby-crowned as it is moving through Connecticut in April.

Where to find them: The primary breeding ranges of both birds lie to our north, but a few Golden-crowned Kinglets breed into the southern Appalachians at high elevations. In Connecticut, and surrounding states, some have adapted to nesting in stands of planted evergreens, primarily large Norway Spruces. Ruby-crowneds do not breed in Connecticut.

Although it has adapted to nesting in some locations here, winter is the prime time for seeing Golden-crowned Kinglets in Connecticut. They’re very hardy and overwinter in decent numbers. You might expect to find them in almost any large park or preserve in the state. Look for them among foraging flocks of songbirds dominated by Black-capped Chickadees.

They can also be found during migration in March-April and October-November.

Ruby-crowned Kinglets are generally less common in Connecticut in winter. Most sightings this month have been in the towns near Long Island Sound (there’s been at least one at the Norwalk wastewater treatment plant).

The prime months for seeing Ruby-crowned Kinglets are April and September-October, when migrants can be encountered in significant numbers. By mid-May almost all have moved north. Fall migrants carry on into November with numbers diminishing to a few that overwinter, or at least attempt it, mostly at lower elevations.

How to find them: Although Golden-crowned Kinglets can be found anywhere in woodlands, often in mixed flocks of chickadees, nuthatches, titmice and Downy Woodpeckers, they’re most often found in evergreens such as native stands of Eastern Hemlocks. They’re adept at gleaning tiny insect and arachnid life in all forms from plants during the harshest winter weather, so they seldom visit feeders.

Golden-crowned Kinglet. Note the orange on the back of the head. Photo by Gilles Carter.

Since Ruby-crowned Kinglets are on the move during prime time for other passerine migrants, they’ll usually be seen in conjunction with a variety of warblers, vireos and other songbirds in all kinds of wooded or scrubby habitats. Occasionally they’ll visit suet feeders in winter.

Conservation status: Both are widespread and have a conservation status of “least concern.”