Flighty, stubby, bubbly, and exceptionally small, Kinglets are a family unto themselves. The Ruby Crowns are found in the winter time throughout much of the U.S., although it's a rare and lucky thing to actually get a good view of that bright red cap. The Golden Crowned Kinglet shows its crown more readily, but is partial to coniferous forests (a photographic nightmare), while the Ruby-Crowned is perfectly content in both desert scrub and stagnant marshes.
Kinglets move like they've got electric current going through them. Watching them bounce around trees devouring insects, leaves, and many other odds and ends leaves one wondering if they're not so much beautiful and petit songbirds as mindless eating machines (yes, it could be both).
With their wing bars, eye ring, and yellow rachis, the Kinglet still provides plenty of eye candy even when the crown is not on display. I was recently reading too that they lay batches of a dozen eggs, by far the most for any songbird within their size-range. Can you imagine a nest full of 12 Kinglets? Total mayhem.
Never a wasted moment observing these industrious little birds.
