Outline
- Description GCKI compared to RCKI
- size*
- color*
- song
- behavior
- Spring migration
- timing
- Fall migration
- timing
- Winter
- CBC data
- my sightings
- Heinrich on survival
- Nesting
- Galatis on nesting
Description
- Regulus ("little king") satrapa
- Among NA birds, only some hummingbirds are smaller.
- Neckless, plump, small pointy bill, beady black eyes, no eye-ring.
- Short, narrow, deeply notched tail.
- In all plumages, a greenish gray bird with bold black markings on face.
- Both sexes olive above, whitish (not olive) underparts.
- White-and-yellowish wing pattern with black and white wing bars.
- Adults, yellow and orange crown-patch (in female, yellow only), bordered by black.
- Orange portion of male crown-patch concealed.
- RCKI is slightly larger, uniformly plainer, less distinctly patterned, overall greener than GCKI.
- GCKI: L 3 1/2" - 4", WT 0.21 oz (6 g)
- RCKI: L 4" - 4 1/4", WT 0.23 oz (6.5 g)
- 4 to 6 subspecies. Differences related to white eyebrow length, upperparts color, underparts color, contrast diffs between wing bars and secondary edges, bill shape.
Song
- Rarely sings during migration??? - BNA
- Song is easily missed.
- High-pitched, weak, rising series of thin notes followed by tumbling, chickadee-like, squeaky laughter.
- The laughing-part is more noticeable than beginning part of song.
- Call a very high, thin, usually "see-see-see" or "zee-zee-zee".
- Very high, weak "tip" notes.
- Also, very short trill-like sound similar to Brown Creeper call.
- "see-see-see" call more noticeable than song and best way to locate GCKI.
- RCKI song is lower-pitched, louder, more musical. One of my favorites.
- RCKI call a husky dry "jidit".
Behavior
- Extremely active forager, twice as fast as warblers.
- Prefers conifers year round.
- Migration at Magee:
- Seems to prefer bushes and small to mid-sized deciduous trees with a lot of twigs or very small branches packed close together.
- Also likes bushes and small trees with vines tangled through them.
- Inspects dead, shriveled up leaves still attached to tree/bush.
- Picks at the intersection of twigs.
- Hops from twig to twig.
- More frequent hovering in pines by hawk tower.
- Forage anywhere from treetops to the ground; mostly 5' to 30' high; generally higher than RCKI.
- Usually found in groups of 3 to 10.
- Both kinglets are fearless; birders at times can get within an arm's length of them.
- Wing-flicking action while foraging, but less than RCKI.
- RCKI is more prone to hovering and flycatching.
- GCKI does more hanging upside down, chickadee-style, than RCKI.
- GCKI more social than RCKI.
- GCKI often joins mixed-species foraging flocks during migration and in winter.
- In winter, associates with chickadees, woodpeckers, titmice, nuthatches, and creepers.
- GCKI is so-so responder to pishing.
- GCKI is almost exclusively insectivorous. Rarely eats fruit or seeds.
- Diet: small beetles, gnats, caterpillars, scale insects, aphids, spiders, insect eggs.
Spring Migration
- Info from "Birds of Toledo" and "Birds of Ohio".
- Golden-crowned Kinglet
- As a result of winter mortality, fewer GCKI pass through Ohio in the spring.
- Still fairly common to common spring migrants.
- Most observations of 20 or fewer.
- Occasional flights of 50-150+ along Lake Erie.
- Largest spring flights produce counts of 250-350 from western Lake Erie.
- Maximum one-day count of 350 on April 11, 1992.
- First migrants appear by March 20-30.
- Largest concentrations reported during the first three weeks of April.
- A few linger along Lake Erie through May 7-14.
- Latest spring departure May 23, 1937.
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet
- Most numerous between April 15 and May 10.
- Largest spring movements total 100-180+ along Lake Erie.
- My observations
- From hawk watching on tower, usually see first migrating GCKI on March 15-20.
- In 2007, saw first migrants on March 22.
- Approx 50 GCKI along boardwalk on March 29.
- Have had triple-digit GCKI spring days on Magee boardwalk and at RIVP.
- By approx third week of April, kinglet numbers lean more to the RCKI side.
- Only one May GCKI sighting on IMBD a few years ago.
Fall Migration
- Info from "Birds of Toledo" and "Birds of Ohio".
- Golden-crowned Kinglet
- Largest numbers of GCKI occur during the fall.
- Normally return to the lakefront by Septebmer 15-22.
- Flights have produced 100-800+ GCKI.
- Because of an unusual combination of weather conditions on October 7, 1954, at Put-in-Bay, Dr. Milton B. Trautman estimated 25,000 to 50,000 passed over South Bass Island.
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet
- Early RCKI return to Lake Erie by August 16-19
- Migration normally begins during first half of September.
- Movements of 100-250+ are occasionally encountered, while daily totals normally are 5-40 along the lakefront.
- RCKI don't congregate in numbers as large as GCKI.
- One-day count of 400 observed on October 5, 1986, during the monthly count at ONWR.
- Largest concentration of GCKI during October.
My obs for past April 12
April 12, 2002, excerpts from what I typed up at that time :
Friday morning [April 12, 2002] was one of my best days at Magee for numbers and without a doubt, my best day at Magee in early spring. Thursday night was the warmest night of the spring in Toledo. The temperatures remained above 55 degrees the entire night which should have made for a good push of song birds. Deb and I arrived at the boardwalk at 10:00 A.M. It was raining and it rained for the next two hours, sometimes quite hard, but that didn't bother the birding. There were hundreds of ruddy ducks near the shoreline. We birded the boardwalk for three hours and the highlights were:
over 100 hermit thrushes,
several dozen sightings for each of the following: white-throated sparrow, yellow-rumped warbler, and ruby and golden-crowned kinglet,
at least 25 winter wrens and about that many eastern towhees,
several fox, swamp, and song sparrows and blue-gray knatcatchers,
sevaral chipping sparrows in the parking lot,
a lone black-and-white warbler, some juncos, and a few field and tree sparrows.
April 12, 2006 excerpts :
The temps overnight remained above 55 degrees all night. The warmest night of the spring, I believe. It rained for a little while in Toledo around 4:00 a.m. Good activity on the boardwalk, including two Northern Parulas, an Orange-crowned, a handful of Pines, a few Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, and several Myrtles, kinglets, and Hermit Thrushes.
Sightings along boardwalk and outside edge:
Junco xx - several dozen in the parking lot by the west entrance.
American Tree Sparrow x
Chipping Sparrow x
White-throated Sparrow x
Fox Sparrow x
Eastern Towhee x
Ruby-crowned Kinglet x
Golden-crowned Kinglet xi
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher x
Myrtle Warbler xi
Pine Warbler (5)
Northern Parula Warbler (2)
Orange-crowned Warbler (1)
Brown Creeper xi
Hermit Thrush xi
Winter Wren x
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker x
Rusty Blackbird x
Cooper's Hawk (2)
Osprey spotted twice with a good bit of time between both sightings. Assume it was the same bird. First sighting, the Osprey was flying at tree-top height along the shoreline. Second sighting, the Osprey flew over the boardwalk with something in its talons.
Another birder who arrived around sunrise said he heard an American Bittern along the causeway and a Virginia Rail along the boardwalk.