Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
Regulus calendula
The top two photographs and bottom left are of Ruby-Crowned Kinglets. The upper left one is the way this species usually appears to me no matter where I see it; in this instance, it shows the Kinglet on the bird bath at my home in north Berkeley, taken on October 29, 2013. The right one, taken in Yellowstone Park in Wyoming on May 30, 2013, shows a view with a glimpse of the ruby crown (rarely visible). The lower left photo, taken in north Berkeley on February 1, 2016, gives an unusually full view of the crown. In the Berkeley area, Ruby-Crowned Kinglets are winter visitors and not usually seen during the summer. This is helpful if one sees a Kinglet-like specimen in the summer, as in the bottom right photograph of a Hutton's Vireo taken on August 22, 2015. The two similar-looking species do overlap for parts of the year, and because the Kinglet's crown is so rarely seen, it is useful to be able to distinguish them by something else. Note in the upper-left and lower-left Ruby-Crowned Kinglet photos that there is a black bar on the secondary feathers that goes right up against the white edge of the coverts. In the bottom-right photo of the Hutton's Vireo, there is no black bar--the secondaries are olive right up to the white edge of the coverts. Also, the Kinglet's bill is not as thick or stubby as that of the Vireo. (Click on images to see enlarged versions.)