Golden Crowned Kinglet

One of the benefits of all the training we do is our communing with nature. Last Sunday, my Y group got together at a new location. While I used to live in the area where we ran, I hadn't been a "runner" when I lived there (1995 or so). However, I had just become a birdwatcher. I'm extremely amatuerish, but I don't care. I still watch for birds and try to identify them.

So, while I was out on my run this last Sunday, getting absolutely SOAKING wet, I was enjoying the scenery by the river. I remember hearing a bunch of birds twittering and thinking to myself that a flock of bushtits
must be flitting through the trees. Bushtits are a very small bird, only about 3.5 inches from tip to tail and fly in flocks of 20 or 30 birds of their own kind along with black-capped chickadees and/or juncos. They also tend to be a very busy bird meaning they will flit from branch to branch of a tree, rarely perching for more than 2 or 3 seconds at a time.


Imagine my surprise then, when I finally catch a glimpse of one of the birds in the tree and it isn't a bushtit at all, but rather another very small and elusive bird, the Golden Crowned Kinglet! Again, this bird is tiny. No bigger than the bushtit, but more colorful. The Golden Crowned Kinglet usually likes to stick to the top of conifer trees and because of that, is not often seen. But when you do, if you are a birdwatcher, you can't help but be enchanted.

So, this little bird, stopped me dead in my tracks during my run on Sunday. My only wish is that I had had my camera with me so I could have taken my own picture rather than relying on those taken by others.