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What did I see?

16 years ago

In Central Maine this yesterday I saw my first red breasted Nuthatch. I saw another later in the day and decided to take another look. As I got closer I realized there were a couple of Chickadee's with it. I saw another small bird and got in for a closer look. The chickadees started their alarm squawking as I approached the thicket. Then I saw another little bird. I did some web searching to try and identify it. It looked like a white crowned sparrow. But from the descriptions I'm looking at it says that bird is 6-71/2" long. This bird was smaller than the chickadees. They were right there for me to compare. The nuthatch looked like a giant compered to it. The crown on the top seemed to have a yellow tinge to it. The bird was not alarmed and came down to about 4 feet from me. I could almost feel the breeze as it fluttered about. Wonder what it was?

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Comments (5)

prairie_love
16 years ago
Try golden-crowned kinglet. One of my favorites.
sailfish
Original Author
16 years ago
I looked around on the net for Golden Crowned Kinglets. I was surprised to see such a variance in color and plumage. I dismissed this as a possibility at the Cornell site because their bird looked excessively yellow. I did find some I.D. photos that concluded that this is what it was. I see so many new birds here in Maine I almost get a headache trying to remember what they looked like so I can look them up later.
Thanks for the help!
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My mom has the purple one, and she always said it was a trumpet vine and I thought she was wrong, but now that I see yours I am going to have to eat crow on this one. I love this vine, do you grow the purple trumpet vine in the shade or sun. my mom grows her's in half sun half shade. Where did you get yours my mom picked her's up at Home Depot but it has been some years now since she purchased hers, I want one. I need some color in my garden in the summer, it is so plain right now, I guess I should ask does yours bloom in the summer, I can't remember if my moms does or not. I see the orange ones quite a bit at at Home Depot but I have never seen the purple ones. Thanks Carrie
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rachel_frome_ky
16 years ago
Wow! I would be dancing on air to get close to so many elusive birds, and to have the Golden-crowned Kinglet so close to you!!
The few times that's happened to me usually either my camera battery went dead, or the camera was on the wrong setting and photos were black. Since I've had the Canon EOS 40D I've only had one o.k. photo of a female Golden-crowned, but from underneath so markings don't show well
From 10-14-08 to 10-20
calliope
16 years ago
The only golden crowned kinglet I can positively say I saw, I nearly stepped on! He was working some dried seedheads on flowers planted near the steps of one of my greenhouses and was totally immersed in his job, as was I.

I was clueless and after I described it here on this forum, the suggestion to look up the kinglet paid off. Those beaks are so delicate.
prairie_love
16 years ago
We get them sporadically but usually in flocks. I don't think I've ever seen one all by itself. They are constantly on the move, would be very hard to photograph I think!

Sailfish - I *think* that the gold shows up more when they raise their crest. I know that's true of ruby-crowned kinglets, so I assume of golden as well. So how well you see the gold would depend on if it's raised or not.

Rachel, it looks almost blue in that photo!

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