Little Rickie

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Little Rickie - The Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote.

[Ruby-crowned Kinglet song, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/136164, 18-21] 

The Ruby-crowned Kinglet is one of North America’s tiniest songbirds. Some know it as Rickie for short, based on the official four-letter code used by birders and bird-banders, R-C-K-I. At just four inches long and weighing less than a quarter of an ounce, it’s affectionately known as “Little Rickie.” 

But the tiny bird has a big voice—the male sings a loud, jubilant song.

 [Ruby-crowned Kinglet song, ML206445 B. McGuire)

The female, maybe even more impressively, may lay as many as a dozen eggs, more than any other songbird of any size. Twelve eggs, each less than half an inch long, weigh in total as much as the adult bird herself. It takes nearly two weeks to lay the entire dozen. Her nest is quite elastic so it can be stretched as the brood grows — a necessity with so many growing nestlings! To stretch it out, the female pushes one side of the nest with her beak and head while pushing the other side with her feet. Quite a feat for Little Rickie. 

[Ruby-crowned Kinglet song, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/136164, 18-21]

For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.

Today's show brought to you by the Bobolink Foundation.
                                                                         ###
Senior Producer: John Kessler
Production Manager: Allison Wilson
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Recorded by B. McGuire and M. Medler
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2021 BirdNote   April 2021    Narrator: Michael Stein

ID#  RCKI-03-2021-04-27    RCKI-03

Resources: https://abcbirds.salsalabs.org/birdoftheweekrubycrownedkingletpm?wvpId=…
 https://abcbirds.org/bird/ruby-crowned-kinglet/?omcampaign=membership=b…]