Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglets typically build their nests close to the trunk high in a conifer. The nests are suspended from twigs below a sheltering and concealing horizontal branch. Often deeper than they are wide, with constricted openings, they conceal the brooding adult so that only the tip of her tail can be seen.

In the eastern part of the range, the highest population densities occur in the black spruce bogs and muskegs of Canada, whereas in the West, spruce-fir, lodgepole pine, and Douglas fir forests are used. The breeding range encompasses most of Canada and Alaska, extending south in the east to Maine, northern New England, and the Adirondacks; in the West, the breeding range extends south throughout the Rocky Mountains and mountain ranges of California.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet Range Map

Although they breed farther north than the related Golden-crowned Kinglet (R. satrapa), they are apparently less hardy and so migrate earlier and winter farther south. Winter range is closely related to average temperature, and they avoid areas where the temperature frequently drops below 25 degrees. In the West there is an altitudinal as well as longitudinal migration as Rocky Mountain birds retreat from high-altitude breeding areas. Most western wintering birds are found west of the edge of the foothills of the mountains. Ruby-crowned Kinglet populations can fluctuate widely, declining in response to logging activities or fire, but severe winter weather appears to have the greatest affect on numbers.

Winter food sources are primarily spiders and insects and their eggs, as well as small amounts of weed seeds and fruits, including the berries of wax myrtle, poison ivy, and red cedar. During summer they scour branches high in conifers, bark surfaces, buds, and the bases of pine needle clusters to find small arthropods. Ants and other Hymenoptera are common prey. These kinglets also make use of sap wells made by sapsuckers. Their foraging niche overlaps that of both Golden-crowned Kinglets and chickadees. Ruby-crowned Kinglets often hover while searching the tips of small branches for food. Flight is jerky and undulating, with short bursts of wingbeats.

For such small birds, Ruby-crowned Kinglets produce remarkable outbursts of song. The song is loud and rich and can be heard over long distances. It consists of three parts: two to three high-pitched tsee notes, five to six lower churr notes, and a higher-pitched series of rollicking phrases such as tee-da-leet, tee-da-leet, tee-da-leet. The song is usually sung from the upper branches of a spruce tree by males defending their territory, but it is also heard during spring migration. Females will also sing, although theirs is a quieter version of the males' song without the last section. Males display their ruby crown during bouts of song and during confrontations.

Description: Ruby-crowned Kinglets are very small and drab. They are olive green above with two bold white wing bars. The lower wing bar has black below the inner half. There is a broken white eye ring, and the underparts are dusky white. During spring they are grayer and less yellowish than during autumn. Ruby-crowned Kinglets flick their wings constantly, as often as once per second. Males display a scarlet crown patch when agitated. Their eyes are black, and their legs are dark with yellow feet.

Hutton's Vireo can be confusing, sharing with the Ruby-crowned Kinglet an eye ring, similar coloring, two white wing bars, and the habit of wing flicking. Its stockier build, stouter bill, and all blue-gray legs and feet distinguish it. This vireo shows pale lores, which the kinglet lacks, and does not show the dark bar below the white wing bar. The wing flicking done by the Hutton's Vireo is much slower than the Ruby-crown's.

Empidonax flycatchers are distinguished from Ruby-crowned Kinglets by their upright posture and flat two-toned bill.

Ruby-crowned Kinglets are one of our smallest birds, measuring only 4.25 inches and weighing about one-quarter of an ounce. For their size, they lay one of the largest clutches of eggs of any North American songbird, averaging nearly 8 eggs per clutch, with as many as 12 eggs recorded in a single nest.

Visit Shaw Creek Bird Supply to see our selection of Ruby-crowned Kinglet Feeders.

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