The golden-crowned kinglet (''Regulus satrapa'') is a very small

songbird A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 500 ...

in the family

Regulidae A kinglet is a small bird in the family Regulidae. Species in this family were formerly classified with the Old World warblers. "Regulidae" is derived from the Latin word ''regulus'' for "petty king" or prince, and refers to the coloured crowns ...

that lives throughout much of North America.

Description

Adults are olive-gray on the upperparts with white underparts, with thin bills and short tails. They have white wing bars, a black stripe through the eyes and a yellow crown surrounded by black. The adult male has an orange patch in the middle of the yellow crown. The juvenile is similar to the adult, but with a browner back and without the yellow crown. This is one of the smallest

passerines A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. Its length, at , is probably the shortest of any American passerine. However, its weight, which averages around , with a range of , is marginally more on average than the

American bushtit The American bushtit (''Psaltriparus minimus'') is the only species placed in the genus ''Psaltriparus'' and the only species in the family Aegithalidae that is found in the New World. In North America, it is referred to simply as "bushtit". Tax ...

and

black-tailed gnatcatcher The black-tailed gnatcatcher (''Polioptila melanura'') is a small, insectivorous bird which ranges throughout the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It is nonmigratory and found in arid dese ...

. The golden-crowned kinglet has a wingspan of 5.5-7.1 in (14-18 cm).

Ecology

The golden-crowned kinglet forages actively in trees or shrubs, mainly eating insects, insect eggs and

spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

s. It produces a series of high-pitched calls on a single note, and tends not to fear human approach. Its nest is a well-concealed hanging cup suspended from a conifer branch.

Distribution

The golden-crowned kinglet is a widespread migratory bird throughout North America. Its breeding habitat is

conifer Conifers are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single ...

ous forests across

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, the northeastern and western

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

. It migrates to the United States in the non-breeding season. Some birds are permanent residents in coastal regions and in the southern parts of their range. Northern birds remain further north in winter than the

ruby-crowned kinglet The ruby-crowned kinglet (''Corthylio calendula'') is a very small passerine bird found throughout North America. It is a member of the kinglet family. The bird has olive-green plumage with two white wing bars and a white eye-ring. Males have a r ...

Taxonomy

The kinglets are a small group of birds sometimes included in the

Old World warbler Old World warblers are a large group of birds formerly grouped together in the bird family Sylviidae. The family held over 400 species in over 70 genera, and were the source of much taxonomic confusion. Two families were split out initially, the ci ...

s, but frequently given family status, especially as recent research showed that, despite superficial similarities, the crests are taxonomically remote from the warblers. The names of the family, Regulidae, and its only genus, ''Regulus'', are derived from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''regulus'', a diminutive of ''rex'', "a king", and refer to the characteristic orange or yellow crests of adult kinglets. There are three migratory

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

in the United States and Canada, differing in size, bill length, back and rump colours, wing bar width and colour, and length of supercilium: * ''R. s. apache'', breeding and wintering from southern Alaska and the southern Yukon to southwestern California and southern New Mexico. This subspecies is medium-small, has a long bill, and has the back and rump bright yellowish-olive. * ''R. s. olivaceus'', breeding from coastal southeastern Alaska to southwestern Oregon, wintering to Idaho and southwestern California. This subspecies is small, with a medium-long bill, and has the back and rump dark greenish-olive. * ''R. s. satrapa'', breeding from northern Alberta to Newfoundland and North Carolina. This subspecies is large, with a short bill, has the back and rump olive with a greyish wash. It further differs from ''apache'' and ''olivaceus'' in two other regards: the white supercilium stops short of the rear of the crown, whereas on the other two species the supercilium extends farther back, and the wingbars are wide, and white (or slightly lemon-tinged) compared with narrow dingy whitish (or lemon- or olive-washed) wingbars of the other two subspecies. The subspecies "''amoenus''" has been synonymised with ''apache'', as the distinctions between these populations are obscured by individual variation. Two other (non-migratory) subspecies occur south of the bird's core range, although these are weakly differentiated from each other and so are perhaps best synonymised:Martens, Jochen; Päckert, Martin "Family Regulidae (Kinglets & Firecrests)" pp. 330–349 in * ''R. s. aztecus'' in south-central Mexico, in the mountains from Michoacán south to Oaxaca. This subspecies is dark greenish above, has poorly developed wing markings, and its underparts are washed greyish-brown. * ''R. s. clarus'' in the mountains of Chiapas, southern Mexico, and Guatemala. This subspecies resembles ''aztecus'' but is paler and duller, with a shorter tail. Hybridization with

s has been reported to have possibly occurred.

References

External links

Golden-crowned Kinglet Species Account
– Cornell Lab of Ornithology

– USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q1063246

golden-crowned kinglet The golden-crowned kinglet (''Regulus satrapa'') is a very small songbird in the family Regulidae that lives throughout much of North America. Description Adults are olive-gray on the upperparts with white underparts, with thin bills and sho ...

Birds of North America Birds of Central America