Have you seen a little grayish-olive bird flitting quickly in the willow, first here, then there, seldom pausing, and flicking its wings every few seconds? It may be a golden-crowned kinglet.

The thin bill is the perfect tool for the diet of tiny insects. Kinglets are often found foraging high in the canopy, where they glean food from the bark, limbs, and undersides of branches and leaves. Sometimes hovering to glean, they also dart out to catch flying insects. They also eat seeds, sap, and occasionally fruit.

Listen for their song of 2 to 5 thin high-pitched notes, sung in the spring to attract a mate. Over about 5 days the pair builds a hanging nest of moss, lichen, spider web, and plant down, lined with fine materials. Nests are usually located at least 50 feet from the ground, high in a conifer tree.

Some golden-crowned kinglets are permanent residents, in winter flocking with chickadees, brown creepers, and small woodpeckers, feeding through lowland deciduous woodlands, orchards, and ponderosa pine forests along tree-lined streams. Some winter as far south as Guatemala, returning to the Wenatchee Valley in the spring.

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