Measurements
Both Sexes
- Length
- 3.1–4.3 in
8–11 cm - Wingspan
- 5.5–7.1 in
14–18 cm - Weight
- 0.1–0.3 oz
4–8 g
Other Names
- Le Roitelet à couronne dorée (French)
- Reyezuelo de Oro, Reyezuelo Moñidorado, Reyezuelo de Coronilla Dorada, Reyezuelo Coronadorada (Spanish)
Cool Facts
- Formerly breeding almost exclusively in the remote, boreal spruce-fir forests of North America, the diminutive Golden-crowned Kinglet has been expanding its breeding range southward into spruce plantings in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.
- The Golden-crowned Kinglet usually raises two large broods of young, despite the short nesting season of the northern boreal forest.
- The female Golden-crowned Kinglet feeds her large brood only on the first day after they leave the nest. She then starts laying the second set of eggs while the male takes care of the first brood. Despite having eight or nine young to feed, the male manages to feed them, himself, and occasionally the incubating female too.
- Each of the Golden-crowned Kinglet's nostrils are covered by a single, tiny feather.
Habitat
Forest
Breeds in spruce and fir forests, as well as some mixed coniferous-deciduous forests.
Food
Insects
Small insects and their eggs.
Nesting
Nesting Facts
- Clutch Size
- 3–11 eggs
- Egg Description
- Drab white spotted with brown.
- Condition at Hatching
- Helpless and with only tufts of down.
Nest Description
Deep, open cup of moss, lichen, spider web, and bark strips, lined with feathers, fine grasses, plant down, lichens, and fur. Hangs from twigs in tree.
Nest Placement
Tree
Behavior
Foliage Gleaner
Gleans food from tips of branches and bark. Hovers and gleans from foliage.
Conservation
Least Concern
Common. Declining in West, increasing in East.
Credits
- Ingold, J. L., and R. Galati. 1997. Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa). In The Birds of North America, No. 301 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.