Feathered Friday - The Kings Have Arrived
hive-106444·@sketch.and.jam·
0.000 HBDFeathered Friday - The Kings Have Arrived
The little kings have arrived for this #featheredfriday by @melinda010100  While out walking looking for morel mushrooms I heard tiny little cheeps in the thickets.  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.
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