Overview

Goldcrest: Tiny, round bird with dull olive-green upperparts and buff to white underparts. Crown has black edges and a bright yellow to orange central stripe, which shows more orange when raised in display. Wings have two white wingbars. Bill is black, legs and feet are brown. Undulating flight.

Goldcrest: Resident throughout the UK and Ireland. Birds from Scandinavia may spend the winter on Britain's east coast. Found primarily in coniferous woodlands, also visits parks and gardens. Breeds from Scandinavia to northern Spain, and east to Asia. Northern birds migrate south for the winter.

Jean Roche Sound

Goldcrest 3

• Title: Goldcrest 3
• Description: Song is a "tweedly-tweedledeedee."
• Recordist: Jean Roche
• Date Imported: "February 7, 2011"
• Location: uk

Goldcrest 4

• Title: Goldcrest 4
• Description: Repeated "tsee" call.
• Recordist: Jean Roche
• Date Imported: "February 7, 2011"
• Location: uk

Voice Text

"tsee-tsee-tsee", "tweedly tweedleedee"

• The Goldcrest is the national bird of Luxembourg and is Europe's smallest bird.
• They are also known as Gold-crested Wrens and are featured in a poem by Charles Tennyson Turner with that title.
• Cold winters in the early 1960s caused a population decline that they didn't recover from until the mid 1970s.
• A group of kinglets has many collective nouns, including a "castle", "court", "princedom", and "dynasty" of kinglets.

• Wren
• Chiffchaff
• Firecrest

Kinglets (Regulidae)

ORDER

The kinglets are one of the one hundred eighteen families of birds in the order PASSERIFORMES (pronounced pas-ser-i-FOR-meez); a large taxonomic order that also includes the pipits, the titmice, and the gnatcatchers.

FAMILY TAXONOMY

There are six species of kinglets in one genus in the Regulidae (pronounced reh-GYOO-lih-dee) family, a group of birds restricted to the forests of the Northern Hemisphere (IOC World Bird List, version 2.3).

EUROPE

In Europe, four species of kinglets in one genus occur. Most common among these are the Goldcrest and the Firecrest.

KNOWN FOR

Among the smallest of Passerines, the kinglets are known for their diminutive size and being very confiding and easy to approach.

PHYSICAL

Members of the Regulidae are very small birds with medium length tails, longish wings, medium length, thin legs with strong feet for perching, and a rounded head with a short, thin, pointed bill.

COLORATION

European species have dull olive upperparts, and grey or whitish underparts with yellowish edging to the feathers of the wings. They also have black in the wings, in the tail, and black markings on the face. All members of this family have one or two white wing bars, white markings on the face, and distinctive patches of bright orange, yellow, or red on the crown.

GEOGRAPHIC HABITAT

The Goldcrest and Firecrest are forest birds that can be found in much of the continent. Although the Goldcrest prefers coniferous habitats and the Firecrest is more frequent in deciduous woods, both can be found in either habitat as well as scrubby vegetation during the winter. The Madeira Firecrest is endemic to that archipelago, while the Ruby-crowned Kinglet is a vagrant species to Iceland from North America.

MIGRATION

The two most common European members of the Regulidae are short distance migrants to southern Europe and northern Africa.

HABITS

The kinglets do not nest in colonies but typically flock together with other kinglets and with other small birds outside of the breeding season. These arboreal birds forage for small arthropods in trees and bushes by gleaning them off of the vegetation while perched as well as picking them off of the vegetation while hovering.

CONSERVATION

None of the Regulidae in Europe are considered a threatened species.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Goldcrest has the distinction of being the smallest bird species in Europe. Its small size is an advantage in terms of survival as a species; since each individual requires less food and habitat compared to larger birds, Goldcrests can maintain a large population size within a fairly small area.

Artist

Michael Oberhofer