See all posts in the Birds of Carver County series
Tiny, like a warbler. Frantically active, like a warbler. Passes through Carver County on its way to and from nesting sites in Canada, like a warbler. But the ruby-crowned kinglet is not a warbler. Ornithologists could explain its categorical classification, but its blazing red crest is what most birders know and what makes this species just as welcome as the warblers with which it associates. Corthylio calendula is its scientific name. “Calendula” refers to the male’s “glowing” ruby crest.
Smaller than a chickadee, the gray and olive green insect eater is seen for a few weeks in April and May. Noted for bright white wing bars and white eye rings, it is constantly moving, sometimes hovering to pick off small caterpillars, aphids or bigger prey. The male will sometimes flare up its ruby-red crest when it is agitated, or maybe when it just feels like it. Either way, it’s an attractive look, although brief. The female looks the same as the male but doesn’t have the crest.
Bird guidebooks remark about the wonderful song of the ruby-crowned kinglet, but we won’t usually hear it in our patch of Minnesota. Their breeding habitat is in the mature boreal forests north of Minnesota and in the Rocky Mountains, giving us another reason to travel beyond the comforts of home. Or, if you are patient, wait until September and October when kinglets are moving toward more insect life and the warmth of the southern climates of North America.
Like hummingbirds, kinglets have a fast metabolism that requires a continual supply of food. This species finds most of its prey in the lower levels of trees and shrubs. Feeding keeps its attention away from us and its pursuits seem unaffected by our presence. Although we aren’t provided opportunities to hear its singing, the Cornell Birds of the World website describes a ruby-crowned kinglet’s call as “che-dit” at a high sound frequency. In a suburban environment however, this may be hard to hear with the competition of lawnmowers, motorcycles and construction trucks that appear at the same time as kinglets pass through the neighborhood in the spring.
Male ruby-crowned kinglets and their female cohorts are enjoyable signs that migration is happening, and that Carver County is lucky to be within its path. Think of the kinglet’s flash of red as a way of saying “Hello, and have a nice day!”
For more information:
- The Sibley Guide to Birds, David Allen Sibley
- Birds of Minnesota, Robert B. Janssen
- The Audubon Society’s Encyclopedia of North American Birds, John K. Terres
- Online: All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology LINK
- Online: Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas
