Tuesday, January 23, 2001

Ruby-crowned backyard bird visits hummingbird feeder

Old Wood Warbler usually nests in sparse, patchy woods of the far north and survives off of bugs and berries

 

The ruby-crowned kinglet nests in sparse, patchy woods of the far north. In Texas it is on vacation.
   On the phone an unfamiliar voice carefully described a backyard bird, hoping I could tell him what it was. He said it was the size of a sparrow, with a greyish back and a bright red cap. I made an appointment to come look at the bird.
   My caller, Dr. Hyman Roosth, lived in South Shores. His yard was lovely, shaded, orderly. When I arrived, he welcomed me, introduced me to his wife, Elinor, and they both accompanied me to the kitchen where a large picture window above the sink overlooked the nature sanctuary that was their back yard.
   A few feet from the window were a pair of red, lantern-shaped hummingbird feeders, set artfully among green shrubs. "I emptied them last week," said Dr. Roosth. "I thought I should." I told him this was a mistake in this climate, that I leave at least one feeder up all winter. The bird they wanted me to see was not a hummingbird. We all looked for it.
   Winter Treasures
   In several minutes a dusky bird, smaller than a sparrow, came from behind a red lantern feeder. I knew immediately that it was one of our winter treasures, a ruby-crowned kinglet. It had large white eye-rings, two distinct white wing bars, and not a sign of red. This was the ruby-crowned kinglet most local birders are accustomed to seeing. Then it looked toward the window, and moved immediately in our direction. The top of its head went up and a spot of bright red feathers appeared there. This was the bird these birders had been seeing.
   "The male has a dark red crown patch which it exhibits when the bird is excited as in courtship or when defending a territory," according to the Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds. I have seen the spot a few times before, sometimes when I play the taped owl call on a Christmas Count, and once on a secret path at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge when we came upon a group of small birds feeding at a wildbee hive. But, in spite of its name, I don't think of a red top-knotch on the head of a ruby-crowned kinglet.
   Old World Warblers
   We are familiar with a large family of birds called American Wood Warblers, which include 109 species. They live from Alaska south to Argentina, and most of them migrate. Ruby-crowned kinglets belong to a much smaller family called Old World Warblers. This family includes golden-crowned warblers, gnatcatchers, and arctic, grasshopper, and willow warblers. They have 10 functional flight feathers instead of the nine which American Wood Warblers have. They are small, fluffy, and excellent singers.
   The ruby-crowned kinglet nests in sparse, patchy woods of the far north. In Texas it is on vacation. Its diet consists of berries and bugs. Its movements are habitually sporadic, nervous. It often hovers off the end of a twig, locating a tiny gnat or insect. I think the Roosths were convinced it was a good substitute hummingbird. I hope they were convinced to fill their feeders and perhaps sustain a buff-bellied hummer this winter and an orange-crowned warbler as I do, or maybe even feed a woodpecker or oriole.
  

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Phyllis Yochem, a Corpus Christi resident, has studied birds of Texas since 1960.

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