cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/4251008

The golden-crowned kinglet (Regulus satrapa) is a very small songbird in the family Regulidae that lives throughout much of North America. In winter, Golden-crowned Kinglets are found across much of the United States and in parts of the east and west of Canada, in coniferous, mixed, and deciduous forests. As during their breeding season, from fall through early spring, these birds prefer to forage in spruce, fir, and pine trees. This bird feeds on a wide variety of tiny insects, including small beetles, gnats, caterpillars, scale insects, aphids, and many others. They also eat spiders. Their diet includes many eggs of insects and spiders. They will feed on oozing sap; rarely feeds on fruit. Golden-crowned Kinglets sing an ascending, accelerating series of up to 14 very high-pitched tsee notes lasting up to 3 seconds and sometimes ending in a musical warble that drops an octave or more in pitch. This is one of the first bird songs that people stop being able to hear as they age. Both males and females sing while constructing the nest, when other songbirds approach, and when predators are nearby, and males sing to proclaim their territory. Both males and females give thin, threadlike tsee notes, often two or three in a row, to contact each other. Here is a link so you can listen to them too.