Bird Watching: Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

The ruby-crowned kinglet (Regulus calendula) is a really teeny little bird. At only 3¾-4½ inches, it is smaller than a chickadee. [See my bird watching article on Chickadees.] You might not even notice it; however, look closely. It is really a cute little thing.

The ruby-crowned kinglet has olive green or greenish-gray upperparts with paler underparts. it also has a greenish-yellow wash on its belly, flanks, and on the coverts under its tail. It has white wing bars and white circles around its large dark eyes. (Its eyes remind me a bit of the tufted titmouse. For more information on this bird, see my article on Bird Watching: Tufted Titmouse.) If a male is trying to attract a female, he will display his red crown, which the female does not have. Also, you will only see this ruby-red crown during the breeding season.

Ruby-crowned kinglets breed from Alaska eastward across most of Canada to Newfoundland. It can also be found southward from British Columbia into southern California and westward to New Mexico. In addition, these little birds breed in the Great Lakes region and in northern New England. They can be found throughout the southeastern part of the United States during their migratory period in the spring and fall and wintering in the Piedmont and coastal plains from the Carolinas into Florida.

During the summer months, ruby-crowned kinglets prefer coniferous forests where they like to build their nests. Deep nesting cups are built far out on the branches in which they will lay 5-11 eggs once during the season. The eggs are cream-colored with red-brown spots. The female incubates the eggs for about 12 days with the fledglings leaving the days about another 12 days later. In the winter, ruby-crowned kinglets leave the coniferous forests for deciduous forests and thickets.

Ruby-crowned kinglets dine primarily on insects from foliage and from those caught in flight. You might also notice them occasionally at the holes made in trees by sapsuckers. They might munch on small seeds, too, in the winter. Look for them in the winter months on the ground near evergreen trees and water mixed in with flocks of chickadees, creepers, nuthatches, and titmice. You will notice them by the way they nervously flick their wings as they hop around on the ground searching for food. If you do not see them, listen. They are quite loud for such little birds, making a jha-dit call and warbles sounding like liberty, liberty, liberty.

If you wish to attract ruby-crowned kinglets to your landscape, plant cedar trees and hemlocks along with other conifers. They will naturally look for the insects attracted by these trees.

References:

Alsop III, Fred J. All About Tennessee Birds. Birmingham, AL: Sweetwater Press, 1997.

Bull, John and John Farrand, Jr. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Eastern Edition. NY, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1994.