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Could this be a ruby crowned kinglet?

12 years ago

I'm sorry the picture is so blurry. This little bird was adorable, but wouldn't stay still for longer than one second. It was very small and kept flitting up and down the trees, hopping or slightly flying from branch to branch. It wasn't as gray as it looks in the picture, more olive green with yellow.

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Comments (10)

savannahmoon
Original Author
12 years ago
another pic
catherinet
12 years ago
I'm no expert, but here's my guess:
I'm only seeing one wing bar (kinglets have 2), and I can't see an eye ring (which kinglet's have). I haven't noticed in the ones that come here that much green. My guess is Tennessee warbler...??
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Except for the 3rd one down, that's definately a caerulea. The third pic tho looks like a caerulea held up in front of a quadrangularis or 'ruby glow'... In fact, given about 10 minutes to move my ruby glow over by my caerulea (and granted a blooming caerulea, mine isn't at the moment) I betcha I could recreate that pic. Are those really it's leaves? If they are, I'd be suspect of that one... But all the others, yeah, that's caerulea. ("blue-crown" to it's friends) The leaves vary with the age of the plant & where they are- I've noticed the 'fingers' tend to get thinner out toward the end of the vine. There's also some variance between the flowers, often hard to see unless one from each plant is held next to the other. I have one from southern california who has 3" flowers, and one I bought here locally with 2" flowers. They look almost exactly the same, with the smaller one's corona being a bit lighter.. Just looking at the leaves tho I can tell no difference between the plants. Lots of variance in this particular plant.
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I'm far from an expert of ruby crowned kinglets, seen them only on very rare occasion myself. One place, when I was walking along about 2-3 miles of trail I saw a small handful of them though, which is more than I have seen at any other time/place but they were all singular individuals seen at different times along that trail rather than a "flock," seen all at once. I would venture to guess they are more solitary.
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Lucky you! We've had both yellow & ruby crowned kinglets visiting just the last few weeks here in southern Ontario, Canada. Our cat unfortunately, killed a yellow. That's when we looked them up since we hadn't seen these little birds before. My husband was able to rescue a red our bad cat was carrying around in his mouth. It flew away unharmed. Cat wears an obnoxiously-loud bell on his collar now which has so far prevented him from killing further.
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savannahmoon
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks for theee reply!
I don't think it is a Tennessee Warbler- those aren't typically in my state this time of year; and in particular are uncommon or rare in my area. I could definitely be wrong about it being a kinglet, though. I am still not very good at memorizing the details of the bird's appearance and behavior. That is why I try so hard to get good pictures, but that little bird was too active!
Hopefully someone else will chime in!
birding_nut
12 years ago
It sure looks like a kinglet to me. In the photos, I can't see the top of the head where it would either be yellow or orange/yellow if a Golden-crowned Kinglet. If there were no stripes on the head, it would be a Ruby-crowned kinglet.

BN
alan_la
12 years ago
The fact that it is active is very typical of a Kinglet.
catherinet
12 years ago
It might be a female ruby, if it doesn't have the red top.
But....I don't see the eye ring of the ruby. Hmmmm.........I just don't know for sure.
oldned
12 years ago
The eye ring on a Ruby-crowned is really a white area at the front & rear of the eye with a very thin line above & below. The forward wing stripe is always thinner than the other one-your 2nd photo shows both field marks...Ruby-crowned Kinglet
savannahmoon
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks so much y'all! I am excited I got it right!
birding_nut
12 years ago
Also, regarding male and female Ruby-crowned Kinglets, the males do not always display their red crown patch. It can be completely hidden unless they want to display it. Just looking at one that does not show the red crown patch can not be safely ID'd as a female. During my graduate work we banded quite a few Ruby-crowned Kinglets during migration and often, even in the hand, we would have to part the crown feathers with our fingers to see the red in order to safely sex the birds.

BN
catherinet
12 years ago
Thanks for that info birding_nut. I didn't know that.
savannahmoon.......congrats on having that little bird there!

I have a couple really old, dilapidated scotch pines in my yard, and they seem to really like them.
They also seem to like my hackberry trees. (in the summer).
Here's a pic I got outside my window last year.

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