While out walking looking for morel mushrooms I heard tiny little cheeps in the thickets.The little kings have arrived for this #featheredfriday by @melinda010100
Then I started seeing little cotton ball puffs flitting around everywhere.
Once I setup the zoom lens I started seeing their bright golden crowns.
These tiny little birds are golden crowned kinglets (Regulus satrapa) that are migrating through Illinois on their way up to Canada for their breeding season.
They are super tiny little birds even smaller than a chickadee and just a bit larger than a hummingbird.
These little guys aren't shy at all but they are awfully bouncy so it is hard to get a good focus on them. Fortunately they don't fly far away from any spot. Instead they just flit from branch to branch in a small area.
The problem is they like the thickets and you have to try and shoot between all the branches.
Finally I was able to get a pose of one of the male's bright orange-gold crown. In their breeding territory they use this crown to scare other male kinglets away from their spot by flaring it at each other. For now they are just passing through and foraging.
This one is probably a female as it only has yellow in its crown. The males have a tinge of orange-red and are slightly more colorful.
I have no idea what they are foraging for right now. The flies aren't out yet and its still too cold for any other insects to be out.
I read up on them and some of what they hunt are insect eggs.
They are probably using their sharp eyes to spot various insect eggs on the fallen leaves.
If I hadn't of been looking for mushrooms and heard their little cheeps I might have completely overlooked them. Once I noticed the first one and started looking I started seeing them all over the forest floor. Hopefully they find enough insect eggs here to fuel their flight up to Canada for the breeding season.
That's all for now, thanks for looking and keep your eyes peeling for tiny little birds on the forest floor if you are in the upper hemisphere.
porridge is very very beautiful i really like it is it worth it.
Porridge?
Yes, sorry, I meant birds. Maybe the keyboard was wrong when I typed.
Haha it happens sometimes, this is porridge with wings lol.
Ooh I'm happy with you thank you
Awesome captures. Such beautiful little birds and hard to photograph. Well done. I speak from experience. We are getting ruby crowned kinglets here but alas no photos yet.
They also tend to arrive when its kind of dark and gloomy making it bad for zoom lenses. I used to see the ruby crowned kinglets in Arizona during winter. They are probably headed back up north right now. For some reason the ruby crowned kinglets avoid the upper midwest alltogether, maybe the golden crowned gang has kicked them out.
Yay! 🤗
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they are very beautiful, on the head is also very nice with a golden crown
When they are in Canada they flair their crown at other males to compete with territory. Like this
the beauty of their crowns is extraordinary.
wow! that yellow and orange spot on the head is great, it's mistaken for a butterfly from far away, the birds are great and your photos too... 😀
Farther west there is a ruby crowned kinglet that looks just like these guys but with a red crown. Someday I want to try and find those too.
wow! it must be just as beautiful as this one, I hope you get to see it because you will surely take great pictures, nice weekend... 😄
One of the smallest birds. Excellent photo It's not so easy to take a picture of this little shorty.
It was strange to see so many in one place at the same time. They were all over the place hunting phantom insects. Fortunately they aren't too shy and didn't even seem concerned I was there, but they can't sit still in one place for more than a couple seconds.