They’re Not Called Ruby-crowned Kinglets for Nothin!
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Tag Archives: Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Golden-crowned Kinglet Alert!
When the tiniest of songbirds with the fanciest of names flits alongside on your walk, you may be lucky enough to catch a photo. Well-camouflaged in their generally olive plumage, they elusively dart about the wooded edge of the path but flashes of their little golden crown gives them away.
Kinglets, both the Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned are migrating through eastern Massachusetts. They are laser focused on insect meals and are often found along shrubby woodland pond banks where there is typically no shortage of bite-sized-for-kinglets arthropods.
For previous posts about kinglets, see the following –
Pocket-sized Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Only weighing about as much as a quarter, the Ruby-crowned Kinglet’s tiny stature belies its vigorous foraging habits. The Kinglet flits and forages along the pond’s muddy edge, energetically snatching insects, all the the while flicking its tail. He leaps from stem to stem then takes off to hover mid-air, simultaneously pecking spiders from slender stalks.
The Kinglet’s ruby crown is well-hidden and mostly seen in spring during courtship display. RCKinglets are so incredibly fast; I was just hoping to capture some tiny bit of footage/documentation and was absolutely delighted when one flew to an adjacent bush only several feet away. He began floofing after his bath, with brilliant vermilion crown on full display.
We are at the tippy northern range of the Ruby-crowned Kinglets wintering grounds. Perhaps with the warming weather trend, we will see more and more.
For comparison sake, two years ago (November 2022), a flock of Golden-crowned Kinglets graced our eastern most shores, staying for about a week.
Warblers and Whatnots – A Handy Guide to Identifying Backyard Warbling Songsters
May is the magical month for migration through Massachusetts (along with many other states and regions) and this year seems extra magnificent. The past several weeks have brought an abundance of exquisite creatures passing through, on their way to northern breeding grounds, along with familiar favorites arriving here to breed in our backyards, local woods, ponds, and fields.
I created this short video for all of we who are “warbler challenged,” that is, struggle to identify these tiny choristers warbling and darting through the treetops. Each spring and autumn migrations I turn my camera’s eye to try to capture what charmer is flitting about in hopes of capturing even a fleeting moment, deciding to try to id when I return home and can have a longer look.
The clips that were chosen are meant to show the birds from all angles – belly, butt, front view, side view, wings in flight, and male and female when captured. The warblers/kinglets/vireos are organized by color to better help make side-by-side comparisons, i.e. all the yellow together, etc. I’ve done my best to give the proper name and will eventually add the audio recordings.
A few notes – a recent tip I learned for discerning whether a Palm Warbler or Yellow-rumped Warbler: The PW has yellow feathers under it’s tail, while the YRWarbler has a patch of yellow on top of it’s tail. Another distinguishing characteristic of the Palm Warbler is that it continually wags it’s tail and you can see the tail wag in the PW clips. The first shot of the Magnolia Warbler, the feathers are so strongly orange -hued I wasn’t sure what I was looking. The second shot shows the more characteristic yellow.
To my songbird friends, please write and let me know if I have made an error; this is a work in progress and we can change anything 🙂
The last clip is a mystery bird, possibly a female Blackburnian Warbler??