The Ruby-crowned Kinglet Tunes Up

BirdNote®

The Ruby-crowned Kinglet Tunes Up

Written by Bob Sundstrom
 This is BirdNote!
[The three-part Ruby-crowned Kinglet song]
It’s spring, and the Ruby-crowned Kinglet's loud, rollicking song echoes from the forest edge in northern and western lowlands. Listen carefully, and you can hear three distinct parts of its song. [Song of Ruby-crowned Kinglet]
This tiny powerhouse of a singer is one of the smallest songbirds on the continent, weighing in at just a little more than half a chickadee. Mostly green and hard to spot, flitting from twig to twig, it hovers in mid-air as it catches tiny insects. The green crown-feathers on the male kinglet conceal a swatch of red ones. When in the mood to sing, he raises this narrow, crimson crest. The kinglet’s Latin name suits it well: Regulus calendula—the "glowing little king," a regal luster that points to his ruby crown, but could also describe his song. [Song of Ruby-crowned Kinglet]
The Ruby-crowned Kinglet tunes up his spring song only in the lowlands. Later this month, he’ll depart to sing —and nest — at mile-high altitudes in our mountain forests.
[Song of Ruby-crowned Kinglet]
To see a photo of this bird, and all we feature on the show, come to our website BirdNote.org. I'm Mary McCann.
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Song of the Ruby-crowned Kinglet provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Recorded by G.A. Keller.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2010 Tune In to Nature.org             May 2010 / 2016 / 2019

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