Regulus satrapa
male
The Golden-crowned Kinglet is a tiny warbler-like songbird. A bold head pattern allows separation from the otherwise similar Ruby-crowned Kinglet. The sexes are dissimilar. Adult males have a gray-green back, and dark wings with two white wingbars. The head pattern comprises a white supercilium emphasized below by a dark eye stripe and above by a black margin to the golden-centered crown. The cheeks are gray and the throat and rest of the underparts are pale gray-buff. The legs are black and the feet are yellowish. Adult females and juveniles are similar to the male but the crown center is yellow.
The Golden-crowned Kinglet is present in its northern breeding range mainly from April to September. It occurs year-round in the northeast and parts of western North America, but most northern birds migrate south in fall, occurring throughout the southern half of the continent. The species is constantly active in search of food and sometimes joins roving mixed-species songbird flocks outside the breeding season.
female
FACT FILE
LENGTH 4 in (10 cm)
FOOD Invertebrates
HABITAT Northern conifer forests in summer; conifer and mixed forests in winter
STATUS Widespread and common, in northern latitudes in summer, and in the southern half of North America in winter
VOICE Song is a sweet tswi, tswi, tswi, tswit-tswit-tswit. Call is a thin twsi
