Rare Sightings & Random Appearances of Golden-crowned Kinglets

Golden-crowned Kinglet along Wildcat Gorge Creek Trail

The uncommon thing about

Golden-crowned Kinglets

is, well . . .

And yet another terrible photo of the Golden-crowned Kinglet

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and proclaim that the elusive little suckers are not so common, but are actually pretty uncommon during this season or any time of year.

Golden-crowned Kinglet, photo by Dick Daniels, http://theworldbirds.org)

Yes, uncommon –

at least in my experience.

Spotted Towhee tweeting in brush

In 15 years of "really noticing birds" I can count on one hand, and still have digits left over, the number of times I've spotted these bustling bundles of jittery joy.

Prime bird habitat in Wildcat Peak area

And yet others lay claim to seeing Golden-crowned Kinglets regularly. I've read some recent online reports indicating such. So, it must be a matter of luck or timing, because the teensy occult foraging passerine completely eludes me for the most part.

Western Bluebird on Conlon Trail near Wildcat Peak

Which, on doing a bit of research, isn't so odd.

Many varieties of birds thrive along the creek in Wildcat Canyon Park

According to the Tilden and Wildcat Canyon Regional Parks Bird Checklist, Golden-crowned Kinglets are listed as UNCOMMON winter visitors, RARE spring passers-by, and, again, UNCOMMONLY sighted during the fall.

Wildcat Creek attracts many birds - and people!

A 1940 report on frequency of birds sighted on the Berkeley Campus indicates that the bird is spotted very INFREQUENTLY during all times of the year.

Lesser Goldfinch feeding on seeds

All I can think of is that maybe things have changed for the better for the Golden-crowned Kinglet since 1940.

Perky little Oak Titmouse

So what gives? Why are many people spotting Golden-crowned Kinglets in and around the Bay Area? And I'm left looking at way too many of the COMMON cousin, the Ruby-crowned Kinglet? (Well, there can never be too many.)

Ruby-crowned Kinglet deigning to flash red head patch

I've catalogued a grand total of four Golden-crowned Kinglet sightings, a low number surely indicative of just how hard the little cusses are to spot. By way of comparison, I see the Ruby-crowned Kinglet so frequently that it's no big deal anymore (unless, of course, you get a glimpse of his flashy ruby crown).

Rare glimpse of a Hermit Warbler in Tilden pine trees

But the Golden Crowned one, ah, this one's much more elusive. An insect foraging, edgy bird, barely bigger than a Hummingbird, he's tough to spot, given a predilection for foraging high up in "needle country" in recondite pine forest canopies. Your best bet for observing the Golden-crowned Kinglet is when they come down to riparian areas.

Chestnut-backed Chickadees are acrobatic feeders

A few weeks ago, I experienced my most satisfying sighting to date. The bird, or maybe it was two birds, hard to tell – flitted and foraged for some thirty minutes in brush and small trees along Wildcat Gorge Trail in Tilden Regional Park. Adding to the lively scene were Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Oak Titmouses, Townsend Warblers, and the ever-present Ruby-crowned Kinglets.

Townsend's Warbler peeking out from behind tree trunk

I also want to think I saw a Nashville Warbler . . . but, having failed to capture an image, I can't swear on it. But I can unequivocally state it was a Warbler-like bird I have never seen before. (Maybe a Vireo of some sort?) Regardless, it was a field day (rather a gorge day) for spotting a couple of birds rarely, if ever, spotted, by me, that is.

Bottom view of Wilson's Warbler at rest

My first Golden-crowned Kinglet sighting was at eerily cool Davis Lake in Oregon. I had no idea what bird it was that just flew like a quantum pellet disappearing into a bush. I had about a 5 second glimpse, just enough to later positively ID him as a Golden-crowned Kinglet – who could forget that stunning golden vertical stripe on the head?

Plush bird habitat on protected EBMUD watershed lands

My second sighting was on Oursan / Bear Creek Trail on EBMUD land. I had just set off and was not quite down to San Pablo Creek, when a bird I instantly knew I'd seen only one other time flew into a tree near the trail, darting about, disappearing, but sticking around long enough to get a much better second look, but no photo, of this crypto-avian species.

House Sparrow clinging to wire

A thrilling moment only a birder

in his/her/their own private world

can enjoy and savor.

Golden-crowned Kinglet spotted in forests of Mount Tamalpais slopes

My third sighting occurred in a small meadow off Steep Ravine Trail in Marin County. Aromatic after a nice rain, dense brush edged up against lush forest commingling with sunny meadow, perfect bird habitat and weather. Emerging from the dankness of the ravine into the sunlit clearing, I felt a sighting coming on. Go ahead, laugh.

Golden-crowned Kinglets are tough to photograph with just a point 'n click camera!

Soon it came: a beautiful Golden-crowned Kinglet manifesting right before my eyes in a tree a few feet away. Then – gone in a flash after 15 seconds of acquaintance. It's been good to know you, Golden-crowned Kinglet.

Warbling Vireo singing away in Tilden Nature Area

What makes the Wildcat Gorge sighting so special is how long the bird stuck around. For a full half-hour, I was absorbed in an almost OCD-like trance of obsessively tracking the Golden-crowned Kinglet and spotting birds in general.

Wildcat Creek beauty & bird h(e)aven

Plus, it was so beautiful after a fresh rain, with the creek burbling along, and the landscape glistening. Many hikers passing by with their dogs and kids, all looking up to the tree tops in wonderment at my insistent scrutiny though the binoculars.

Freshet tributary of Wildcat Creek off Blue Gum Trail

To one, I turn and say,

"The birds!

Ya gotta love them!

You know they can count, right?"

Varied Thrush in silhouette

The kid's eyes roll and jaw spins, and he says,

"Like you mean one plus one equals two?"

Bonus sighting along the creek: Virginia Rail

"'Zactly!"

Anna's Hummingbird taking it easy

I cite a recent study conducted on New Zealand Robins,

a smarty-pants bird who:

Special appearance and sighting of Virgina Rail on Wildcat Creek

" . . . showed that they knew perfectly well

when a scientist had showed them

two mealworms in a box,

but then delivered only one."

Townsend's Warbler cooling off in spring

What could be more fascinating

to the kid in all of us

who adores and holds birds in awe?

Purty little Yellow-rumped Warbler

Check out this video of someone who managed

to capture the hyperactive Golden-crowned Kinglet in action!

A GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET IN MAINE

Wildcat Creek natural aviary
recondite stretch

A Birducopia of Sightings, Encounters & Activity as Fall Migration Season Winds Down (Or Picks Up?)

Cormorants gathered on guano-splattered rock

Fall season has been great

for the birds of California,

whether temporary visitors

or year-round residents.

California Quail

Mild temperatures and abundant sustenance guarantee food, safety and shelter for hundreds of avian species dropping out of the skies around the Bay Area in world class birding locales from Point Reyes National Seashore and Mount Diablo State Park to endless miles of San Francisco Bay shoreline and this blog's favorite and much beloved Jewel Lake / Tilden Nature Area in the Berkeley Hills.

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Recent reports on birding sites detail an embarrassment of avian riches everywhere around the Bay Area.

Brilliant male Mountain Bluebird
(photo by Elaine R. Wilson, CC BY-SA 2.5
<https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5>,
via Wikimedia Commons)

Sightings of exotic Mountain Bluebirds

near Patterson Pass Road.

Western Kingbird sighting near Vernal Utah

Western Kingbirds

at Heather Farms in Walnut Creek.

Lewis's Woodpecker

(Photo by http://www.naturespicsonline.com/,

CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>,

via Wikimedia Commons)

Lewis' Woodpeckers

at Briones Reservoirs.

Flotilla of Gray Pelicans at MLK, Jr Shoreline

As well as my own unheralded, miraculously small birding sightings, encounters and adventures in the Berkeley Hills, along San Pablo Creek, in Mitchell Canyon, and throughout west Marin County.

Bird-licious habitat at Mitchell Canyon, Mount Diablo State Park

Including a super-hot spot for birds – Limantour Beach – and just about everywhere, anywhere, where there's a forest or brush for cover, it's a bonanza of birds.

Limantour Beach at Point Reyes National Seashore

Aren't they blessed little souls!

Northern Waterthrush (photo by Fernando Burgalin Sequeria, Macaulay Library)

Naturally, what's good for the birds is good for the birders, and throngs of 'em are out in force this season hoping to spot a wayward Northern Waterthrush or off-course European Finch.

Excellent avian habitat in the Berkeley Hills (Tilden Park)

Many, including me, are hoping to up their Life List tally by a dozen species. It's that kind of year. And, for the proud and few, it might even be a Big Year . . . which, in any case, will have to wait, unfortunately, for me, at least.

Lesser Goldfinch (guessing)

Despite routinely spotting 20 to 30 species in my side yard or local park, paradoxically, I've not seen one-tenth or one-twentieth, even, of the possible number of unique avian visitors to our great Bay Area, a mighty big place, and easily 300 or 400 species come and go and stay.

Whimbrels feeding in the mudflats of Albany Bulb

Is it just me who hasn't seen, say a "common" Pine Siskin, Oven Bird, or Painted Bunting? Let alone a Tennessee Warbler, Cassin's Vireo, or Common Poorwill.

"Just" a common ol' Wilson's Warbler

Thought:

maybe I have spotted one

and just didn't know it.

Coots on shore near mudflats of SF Bay

Still, it's a Big Year right in my BerkeleyBackYard environs. My list is growing of several fortuitous, serendipitous, but very fleeting sightings of many splendid (and not so common) birds.

Stilts in San Francisco Bay

Some of whom I may not see again.

Varied Thrush spotted in Mitchell Canyon

A Varied Thrush seen and well photographed at Mitchell Canyon, Mount Diablo State Park. Also spotted over twelve months in Codornices Park, the Regional Parks Botanic Garden parking lot area, John Hinkel Park in Berkeley, Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, and on Thanksgiving Day, two in my side yard, a first ever sighting of the pretty Thrushes showing up here.

White-breasted Nuthatch pausing from insect-hunting

A White-breasted Nuthatch spotted right off the bat at Mitchell Canyon, but not again after that.

Red-breasted Sapsucker in the Eucalyptus trees at Tilden

A Red-breasted Sapsucker, spotted for the first time in the Regional Parks Botanic Garden, and again elsewhere in Tilden Regional Park later. Strange, two sightings, apart, of a bird I had never seen before. (There's that thing again!)

Not-so-great shot of the Black-throated Gray Warbler

A Black-throated Gray Warbler spotted at Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. A magical encounter of a unique bird flitting into my life ever so briefly, in a place I had no business being. (Check out prior post on it.) I'll be lucky to ever see one again. And yet . . . it's considered "not so uncommon" to see one!

Lone Killdeer

Killdeers along the San Francisco Bay shoreline – true, I've never before seen one! Have I just not been looking for them? Amazing little dudes, I had never been aware, let alone noticed them before.

American Wigeon (?)

Wigeons at the Albany Bulb – ditto. Why would I ever notice a Wigeon before, and know it was a Wigeon I was noticing?

Hermit or Wood Thrush? (Who can tell?)

Hermit Thrushes – they're all over the place this fall, like I never can remember them being. (Could some of them be Fox Sparrows and/or Wood Thrushes I'm misidentifying.) Why did I not notice them as a "fairly common" bird before?

Angry looking bird: European Starling

European Starlings spotted at McLaughlin Eastshore State Park surprised me immensely for their otherworldly look and coloration. And besides, I don't think I could ever lay claim to actually positively ever having seen one. The photo here managed to stump a few fellow birders for a while!

Rehabilitated upland meadows at McLaughlin Eastshore State Park

By the way, McLaughlin Eastshore State Park is an amazing natural resource on our urban doorstep – rehabilitated, terraformed bird and wildlife habitat in an upland area known as the Berkeley Meadows.

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Golden-crowned Kinglets at Wildcat Gorge – or maybe it was just one, but he stuck around for twenty minutes in plain sight. My best ever sustained glimpse of the hardy little bird distinguished by an orange crown stripe emblazoned atop his little head. I consider it a rare thing to spot a Golden-crowned Kinglet, yet people report seeing them left and right.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

The EBRPD Bird Checklist, though, considers their appearance "rare" and "uncommon" all year round. So, what gives?

Orange-crowned Warbler - I think!

Come to think of it, even what you might regard as a pedestrian sighting in a local city park of, say, a common bird, like the American Robin, can thrill the heart with a voyeuristic glimpse into the mystery world of birds, a world where each small bundle of feathers and fat is a special and perfect miracle of creation.

American Robin red-breast enjoying a snack

Enjoy this snippet footage of an American Robin

for – not the whole world to see –

but for me alone to witness

a hidden bird doing whatever comes natural

to an American Robin

to any and all birds

caught in the act of simple, miraculous existence of . . . 

birds bein' birds:

ROBIN'S HIDDEN WORLD

Nutrient-rich mudflats and creek estuaries
along the SF Bay waterfront