BIRDS OF AMERICA 



GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET 



Regulus satrapa satrapa Lichtcnstcln 



A. n. U. Niiml.er 748 



Other Names. — Goldeii-crested Kinglet: Gnlden- 

 crowned Wren; Flame-crest: Fiery-crowned Wren: 

 Gold-crest. 



General Description. — Length, 4' 4 inches. Upper 

 parts, gray : under parts, olive-whitish. 



Color. — Adult M.\le: Front portion of forehead 

 and a broad stripe over the eyes, dull white or pale 

 gray: within this a broad J'-shapcd mark of black, 

 inclosing a narroiccr one of ycUozi', icithiii u'liich is 

 a large fiatcli of bright orange or cadmium orange. 

 occupying center of crown and projecting over back 

 of head: back of head (beneath rear portion of 

 orange-colored crest), hindneck, and upper back, 

 mouse-gray: rest of back, grayish-olive, changing grad- 

 ually into brighter or more greenish-olive on rump 

 and upper tail-coverts : wings and tail, dusky with light 

 yellowish-olive edgings ; the middle and greater wing- 

 coverts, broadly tipped with pale olive-yellow or yel- 

 lowish-white: secondaries crossed by a basal (con- 

 cealed) band of pale yellow, immediately succeeded 

 by an exposed one of dusky ; an indistinct, or at least 

 not sharply defined, dusky streak across the lores and 

 back of the eyes, and, usually, a similar streak at the 

 corner of the mouth: rest of sides of head, together 

 with under parts, plain dull olive-whitish, the sides 

 and flanks faintly tinged with more yellowish-olive : 



Si-f (-,,l,,r I'latc 104 



iris, brown. .Adult Female: Similar to the adult 

 male, but orange crown-patch entirely replaced by 

 canary-yellow. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : Spherical, about four and 

 a half inches in diameter, composed exteriorly chiefly 

 of green moss, lined with fine strips of bark and fine 

 rootlets, surmounted by numerous feathers of various 

 wild birds, arranged with points of quills downward 

 and forming a screen that effectually conceals the 

 eggs ; semi-pensile or not, being sometiines supported 

 beneath and sometimes fastened by top and sides to 

 the needles of the coniferous tree in which it is usually 

 placed, generally at a height 50 or 60 feet from the 

 ground. Eggs : 5 to 10, varying from creamy-white 

 to buff, sprinkled with numerous spots or blotches of 

 pale brown, chiefly around larger end, and placed in 

 the nest cavity in a double layer as the space is too 

 small to hold them in one. 



Distribution. — North America east of Rocky 

 Mountains : north to Labrador, Keewatin, etc. : breed- 

 ing southward to Massachusetts, central New York, 

 northern Michigan, northern Minnesota (?), etc., and 

 along Allegheny Mountains to western North Carolina 

 (in spruce belt): wintering southward to northern 

 b'lorida. and westward along Gulf coast to south- 

 central Texas. 



GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET (nat. size) 

 A dainty, feathered mite 



