Episode 32: Golden-Crowned Kinglet – Voice of the Wild

Golden-crowned kinglet (Regulus satrapa).

The golden-crowned kinglet is one of our smallest birds and their sweet, high call is one of winter’s delights. 

Do you want to learn more bird songs, frog calls, and insect noises? Join Voice of the Wild every Friday to explore a new wild voice. We’re available on most podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. 

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The following Cornell Lab | Macaulay Library recordings were used in this episode: 

• Golden-crowned kinglet song by Geoffrey A. Keller (ML508537) 
• Golden-crowned kinglet call by Geoffrey A. Keller (ML508540) 

Sources and more: 

• https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Golden-crowned_Kinglet 
• https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/golden-crowned-kinglet 
• Godfrey, Michael A, John Farrand, and Roger Tory Peterson. Videoguide to the Birds of North America. New York, N.Y: MasterVision, 1985. Film. 
• Peterson, Roger Tory, and Virginia Marie Peterson. A Field Guide to the Birds: A Completely New Guide to All the Birds of Eastern and Central North America. Fourth edition, completely revised and enlarged. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1980. Print. 

What is Voice of the Wild?

If you learn to listen for them, you will find wildlife everywhere. Voice of the Wild is a podcast about wildlife and the wild sounds they make. Tune in every Friday to learn a new bird song, frog call, or insect noise.

This is Illinois Extension’s Voice of the Wild. A new wild voice in just a moment, so find someplace quiet, take a deep breath, and enjoy.

When you chance upon this diminutive bird in a winter woodland, or in a mixed flock on a cold spring morning, you’ll wonder how it can possibly keep its tiny olive colored body warm. But, Somehow, they manage: apparently finding enough to eat by gleaning meals from the high boughs of conifers and other forest trees. Watch for a brief hover as it flits about a rapid inspection of moss and lichen for overwintering insects. And look too for a distinct line through the eye and the yellow shine of its namesake golden crown.
This is the Golden-crowned kinglet. Regulus satrapa, from the family Regulidae. Listen for the golden’ crown’s high, thin call, and for the tense rise and relaxed fall of its song. Here it is again.

Thank you to the Macaulay library at the Cornell lab for our bird sounds. And thank you for tuning in to learn a new wild voice with Illinois Extension.