Kinglets in Winter

BirdNote^®

Kinglets in Winter

Written by Dennis Paulson

This is BirdNote

[Golden-crowned Kinglet calls]

These thin, silvery calls coming from the forest, belong to a survivor—the Golden-crowned Kinglet. This bird weighs six grams, about the same as two pennies, yet they winter as far north as Alaska and Nova Scotia. With short days, intense cold, and heavy snow, how do kinglets stay alive?

[Winter wind whistling]

Biologist Bernd Heinrich found that the kinglets move through the forest in small flocks and feed constantly, at almost one peck per second, throughout the short day. By doing this, they take in enough tiny caterpillars to maintain their internal furnace at 110° Fahrenheit.

[Golden-crowned Kinglet calls]

And their insulation keeps them warm. Their feathers make up 8% of their body weight, equivalent to the weight of the clothing of an arctic explorer. When night falls, the flock huddles together to conserve heat, another of their superb adaptations for survival.

[Golden-crowned Kinglet calls]

For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.
Support for BirdNote is provided by Jim and Birte Falconer from Seattle, Washington, and generous listeners around the world.
                                                            ###
Senior Producer: John Kessler
Production Manager: Allison Wilson
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Call of the Golden-crowned Kinglet provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Golden-crowned Kinglet ML44839 recorded by G.A. Keller.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2021 BirdNote   April 2021    Narrator: Michael Stein

ID#  030107GCKIKPLU     GCKI-01b