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Project Noah Nature School
Regulus satrapa
Very small songbird with distinctive gold patch on crown, bordered by black and white stripes. White throat, pale grey breast, olive-grey back, defined wing-bars. Flits and hovers while gleaning insects from the winter branches in the garden near my feeders.
Suburban garden in the Pacific northwest temperate rainforest. Feeding with a mixed flock of Black-capped Chickadees and Chestnut-backed Chickadees, which were eating seeds from my feeders but the kinglet was gleaning from the branches of a small maple tree.
Spotted on Dec 6, 2013
Submitted on Dec 9, 2013
3 Comments
Thanks, Jemma! I know and I love to watch them in my garden and forest at this time of year. The Varied Thrushes are an interesting thing too. They aren't normally seed eaters but come to my feeders in the really cold winters. Maybe they are actually eating bugs in the seeds or on the feeders.
While there may not be flying insects in the winter, dormant insects and larvae are a critical food source for birds. Chickadees, nuthatches, creepers, woodpeckers and other birds will forage in tree bark for insects that provide valuable protein.
http://birding.about.com/od/birdfeeders/...
Diet consists of mainly tiny insects, insect eggs and spiders. Hard to find in this freezing cold whether!