Ruby-crowned Kinglet

The Ruby-crowned Kinglet is a diminutive, plain-faced songbird that packs an outsized voice into a body barely larger than a hummingbird. Its plumage is olive-gray overall, slightly brighter and more yellowish on the wings, with two white wingbars, the lower one bordered by a black bar.

The male's namesake ruby-red crown patch is usually concealed beneath the surrounding olive feathers and flashed only during excitement, aggression, or courtship, making the plain face with its bold white eye-ring the more reliable field mark day to day. Despite its tiny size, this kinglet delivers one of the loudest, most exuberant songs of any small songbird.

Key Field Marks

• Plain olive-gray face with a bold, complete white eye-ring (no dark eyeline)
• Two white wingbars, with a black bar just below the lower one
• Red crown patch in males, usually hidden and flashed only when excited
• Constant wing-flicking while foraging
• Small, stubby dark bill

Similar Species

Golden-crowned Kinglet shows a bold black-and-white striped face pattern and a crown patch (yellow or orange) that is visible far more often, lacking the plain-faced, bold eye-ring look of Ruby-crowned. Hutton's Vireo is superficially similar in plumage but is bulkier, slower-moving, and has a thicker, hook-tipped bill compared to the kinglet's thin bill and hyperactive foraging style.

Habitat

Ruby-crowned Kinglets breed in coniferous and mixed boreal and montane forests, often near spruce, fir, or pine. During migration and winter, they range much more broadly into deciduous woodlands, thickets, chaparral, and even suburban gardens.

Range

This species breeds across the boreal forest of Canada and Alaska and south through mountainous conifer forests of the western United States. It winters across the southern and coastal United States, Mexico, and Central America.

Migration

Ruby-crowned Kinglets are medium-distance migrants, vacating most of their northern breeding range in winter and moving to a broad wintering range across the southern half of the continent and beyond.

Behavior

This kinglet is almost never still, hopping restlessly through foliage and flicking its wings rapidly as it forages, often at eye level or lower during migration, unlike the more canopy-bound Golden-crowned Kinglet.

Voice

The song is remarkably loud and complex for such a small bird, beginning with thin high notes, shifting to lower burry notes, and ending in a rollicking, chanting warble. The call is a scratchy, husky 'ji-dit.'

Feeding

It gleans tiny insects and spiders from leaves and twigs, frequently hovering to pick prey from foliage tips, and will also eat berries and tree sap, especially in winter.

Nesting & Breeding

The female builds a deep, spherical hanging nest of moss, lichen, and spider silk suspended from conifer branches, well concealed high in the canopy. She lays a large clutch, typically 5-12 tiny eggs, one of the largest clutch sizes relative to body size among North American songbirds.