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Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Status Fairly common in summer, very rare in winter. Breeds. It appears among the early spring migrants (average 19 April, earliest 7 April); a bird on Cape Sable on 28 March 1964 was unusually early. In summer it is widely distributed throughout evergreen woodlands. It leaves in September and October, numbers generally peaking during the first two weeks of October. Individuals may linger throughout November and into December, having been recorded on Christmas Bird Counts on occasion. There are also a number of January records, and one came regularly to a feeder in Brooklyn, Queens County, until at least early February 1966.

Description Length: 9-10 cm. Adult male: Partially concealed ruby patch on crown; upperparts olive-green; tail and wings darker; wing with two grayish white bars; underparts grayish white. Adult female: Similar but lacks ruby mark on crown. Both sexes: White eye ring but no eyebrow stripe.

Breeding Nest: Usually semi-pensile, otherwise similar in appearance and construction to that of the Golden-crowned Kinglet, but in a different location. This bird usually places its nest near the top of a thick, slender spruce, close to the trunk, 5-10 m from the ground, in coniferous woods or open groves sometimes close to human habitation. Eggs: 5-9, usually 8; pale buff or creamy white, spotted very indistinctly with specks of light brown chiefly about the larger end. Nest construction begins about 1 May, and sets are complete by 24 May, on which date in 1929, an unusually located nest containing eight fresh eggs was examined near Wolfville. It was partly pensile and partly saddled on a large spruce limb about 3 m out and about 6 m from the ground, and admirably concealed among a thick cluster of twigs to which it was loosely fastened. The female had been seen carrying nesting material to this nest on 5 May. On 7 June 1916 a female was seen carrying nesting material to her second nest on Wolfville Ridge; the first had been destroyed by a red squirrel.

Range Breeds in coniferous forests from northern Alaska to Newfoundland, south to northern Maine, southern Ontario and southern California. Winters from New Jersey (occasionally further north) and British Columbia to Mexico.

Remarks The outstanding characteristic of this little male monarch is its song. There are other birds whose songs are just as sweet and varied, but considering the size of the performer, none can match it for volume. Few people know this extremely active and nervous little bundle of energy, next in size to our hummingbird, by sight, but many have heard its song, perhaps caught a glimpse of it high in the top of a conifer and marvelled at its torrent of song. The full song has three distinct parts, but one must be close and there must be no wind if one is to have the benefit of the full rendition. It starts with a low, nervous tse-tse-tse, and continues with a more spirited chirr-chirr-chirr followed by a gay, rollicking and far-flung liberty-liberty-liberty, as though it were proclaiming its ecstasy to the whole world. The final notes are the loudest, and often, because of distance or wind, they are the only part of the song that is heard. Should one wander too close to its well-hidden nest, it will scold with a monotonous chir-r chir-r chir-r .