FOAM LAKE BIRDING
No. 160
It has been
awhile since my last article but surgery and subsequent recovery have caused me
to delay my efforts in this regard. Things
are still going to be sporadic for awhile but I do hope to get into a routine
in a month or so.
In the last
several weeks there has been a flurry of bird activity in our yard. There have been the usual White Crowned
Sparrows, White Throated Sparrows, Pine Siskins, Juncos, Chickadees, Red
Breasted Nuthatches and House Sparrows to name a few. At the same time there have been an unusual
number of uncommon (not rare) birds also.
These include Hermit Thrush, Fox Sparrow, Blue Jay, Red Crossbills and
Ruby Crowned Kinglets.
I wanted to
get a picture of the Hermit Thrush but was unable to do so. My wife though managed to get a couple of
decent shots of a pair of Ruby Crowned Kinglets feeding in our chokecherry
tree. The process was quite difficult as
the birds were constantly in motion and before they could be zeroed in the
range finder they were gone.. To add to
the problem the day was heavily overcast which caused focusing problems as
digital cameras need good light to get crisp pictures.
There are
two kinglets in Canada,
the Ruby Crowned and its smaller cousin the Golden Crowned, and both are
present in our area. They are related to
Old World warblers and are our smallest of
birds save for the hummingbirds. The
Golden Crowned is more of a conifer lover and can be seen in our area during
spring and fall migration. On the other
hand The Ruby Crowned has nested right in town in the mature spruce trees by
the RCMP station. When my wife and I
went on our evening walks we would stop there and listen to the male sing. What is so extraordinary about its song is
the sheer power of it for so small a bird.
Upon first hearing it one would expect to see a bird about the size of a
robin. Because of its diminutive size
and green colouration the kinglet is hard to spot in a tree and the song seems
to emanate from the tree itself.
Although
rather nondescript it does have one field mark that readily separates it from
similarly coloured warblers and flycatchers.
Overall it has a drab greenish topside and whitish underside but with
prominent white and black wing bars. The
white bars are higher up the shoulder immediately followed by a black bar just
below the lower one. No other bird has
such wing bars. During breeding season
the male's ruby crown is sometimes displayed further confirming
identification.
In the two
photos a Ruby Crowned Kinglet is feeding in the manner described above, One photo shows the kinglet flitting ; the
other shows the kinglet perched and reaching up the underside of the leaves for
gnats and other small insects. Although
the pictures are not that crisp the wing bars are clearly visible in the photo
of the perched bird. Refer to a bird
book for further field marks.