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Project Noah Nature School
Regulus calendula
Small Kinglet with large head and white eye rings that make the eyes look large. Males usually have a ruby colored patch on the head but not always visible so telling the difference between males and female difficult. Similar looking species is the Hutton's Vireo. Hutton's has a slightly longer and thicker bill. Where the Kinglet will have a dark patch below the last white bar, the Hutton's dark patch would be between the two white bars.
Though can be found mostly in Oak trees, I've spotted them in many types of trees and even small shrubs.
The first image the male kinglet was spotted on the ground by waters edge, moving slowly almost like it couldn't fly and was not noticing we were so close. Guessing it was cold. It eventually flew after 5 min. The other one was in the same Bottle brush plant as 3 different Warbler species. Both spotted in the SF Botanical Gardens
Spotted on Dec 8, 2013
Submitted on Dec 10, 2013
3 Comments
cuteness.
Thank you Leuba. The bird was so small and the ruby crown made it stand out so much.
What a lovely spotting ! That spot on the head is amazingly bright - just great, Jellis. Thanks for sharing this.