Cuvier's Kinglet
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Cuvier’s
Kinglet, Regulus cuvierii
L 8-11 cm, WS 14-18 cm, Family: Regulidae
IUCN Conservation Status:
Least
Concern (LC)
Description:
Small,
round bird with small, thin bill, short tail, and short, broad wings. Olive
green to gray overall, lighter gray undersides, with a dark eyeline and crown
stripes surrounding a scarlet crown. Tail and wings show yellowish edging and
two white wingbars. Sexes similar. Tiny, Cuvier’s Kinglets are the smallest passerines
on Novasola.
Voice:
Sings
and calls often. Song is a hitch-pitched series of ascending tsee notes
followed by two distinct downward warbles, usually lasting three to four
seconds. So high pitched, it can be difficult or impossible for people with
hearing loss to hear the song. Both males and females sing, as a courtship and
to defend nests. Calls are usually three to four tsee notes from the
song in short series. Also give a raspier, cat-like call less commonly.
Range and Habitat:
Range
encompasses most of Novasola, they can be found in any forest ecosystem including
temperate rainforest, conifer, mixed, and deciduous forests, dry pine and
juniper stands, and oak savannah. They prefer conifer forests. Breeds in
forests, but in winter they can be found in any area with trees, even in the
prairie in wooded riparian areas or cottonwood stands. Also commonly found in
man-made habitats like yards, gardens, parks, and orchards, and will often
visit feeders. Generally nonmigratory to short-distance migrants, but
occasionally will migrate off island to the mainland Pacific coast. One vagrant
bird was recorded in Pennsylvania.
Discussion:
A
familiar songbird across Novasola, the Cuvier’s Kinglet is as popular as it is
tiny. The smallest passerine bird found on the island, and the second smallest
endemic bird above only the Golden Hummingbird, the Cuvier’s Kinglet is nonetheless
tremendously hardy; kinglets can endure extremely low temperatures and they are
one of few endemic birds that can be found at high elevations even during the
coldest winter months. They are, however, equally at home in suburban
backyards. Because of their size, active foraging habits, and preference to remain
in the canopy, kinglets can be difficult to observe, though their constant
vocalizations betray them, so long as a person can still hear such high
frequencies. Indeed, the Cuvier’s Kinglet tends to be the first bird aging
people lose to poor hearing.
The
Cuvier’s Kinglet breeds in forests across the island but is most common in
dense, conifer forests, especially those west of the Paramounts. During winter,
some migrate to more open areas that may include meadows, pastures, shrubland,
and wooded thickets in savannah and grassland. During the winter kinglets will
form of join large foraging flocks, often mixed with other species including
chickadees and nuthatches. Their diet consists mostly of invertebrates that
they glean from needles, leaves and bark. Kinglets forage high in trees along
small branches and search for insects which they can either glean or catch
mid-air in small hawking flights. They forage in much the same way and in the
same places as chickadees, though it seems kinglets are more dependent on
invertebrates while chickadees can include more vegetative matter like seeds in
their diet. During the winter kinglets may supplement their diets with some
seeds, though only in small amounts. It is though that by foraging in large,
mixed-species flocks with chickadees, nuthatches, or woodpeckers, each species
actually increases their foraging success than if they were foraging alone.
This likely has to do with subtle differences in foraging techniques that may
reveal and disturb insects, and more eyes on the lookout for predators.
Cuvier’s
Kinglets are monogamous and mate for life, and they remain with their mates
throughout the year. Males will sing to defend territories and attract mates.
Nests are usually placed high in the canopy, often no fewer than 70 feet above
the ground. They build simple, small cup-nests on narrow twigs and branches,
but these are rarely seen by people. In fact, relatively little is known about
Cuvier’s Kinglet nesting habits considering the species’ commonality. Pairs will
lay multiple, usually two to three, clutches a season, though this was only
recently discovered.
The
Cuvier’s Kinglet has something of a strange but fascinating history. Though
originally described in 1812 by John James Audubon, he did so using a specimen
he shot in Pennsylvania, well outside the species’ normal range. Audubon
considered it different enough from Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglets to
warrant a new species, and so named it after French naturalist Georges Cuvier.
However, Audubon never found a second individual despite repeated efforts.
Though this is unsurprising now, at the time Audubon never gave up hope of
finding the species again. It is likely that Audubon encountered a rare
vagrant, and it stands as the only known observation of a Cuvier’s Kinglet east
of the Rocky Mountains. In fact, there were many who doubted the species’
existence at all and figured Audubon had instead found an aberrant
Golden-crowned Kinglet or perhaps a hybrid. Unknown to Audubon, early white
settlers of Novasola were at the same time as him discovering Cuvier’s Kinglets
in Cape George, though no one there was publishing reports. Naturalist George
York Baker likely observed these kinglets in 1780, over thirty years before
Audubon, but was never able to write of them due to debilitating illness. Instead,
it wasn’t until Richard Reichwald wrote Native Birds of Novasola in
1912, exactly one hundred years later, that the Cuvier’s Kinglet was for a
second time recorded in publication.
Common
even in 1902, Cuvier’s Kinglets were likely one of the most often encountered
songbirds by members of the Novasola Research Corps during many portions of the
expeditions, whether or not they were aware of it. Reichwald wrote often of
hearing flocks of them from high in the treetops, though less often did he
observe them with his eyes.
“The
Kinglets abound in the western forests, and may be seen across the Fastwaters.
I have observed countless flocks of the bird, often in the company of those
other neighborly species the chickadees and warblers and nuthatches, flitting
between trees in every wooded corner of the territory. The kinglets, though
miniscule in stature, shan’t be mistaken for its companions, as its habits are
entirely diagnostic. Much like chickadees, Kinglets will hang upside-down from
small branches often, though Kinglets are entirely more frenetic. They buzz and
whip and whirl among the needles and leaves in such a frenzy that most often I
can observe them only as blurs of motion. When they do finally take still and
present me with a chance to view them proper, they stare back at me with those
humorous eyes for only the briefest of moments before returning to the hustle.
Indeed, even when still the Kinglet will often flutter its wings in what appears
to be a nervous tick which no doubt serves a purpose unknown to me.
Their
voices are even more revealing to a listener. Their high-pitched squeaks and
chips are of a quality unlike chickadees, instead sounding more like waxwings
or creepers, though ‘tis true Kinglets will occasionally scold in much the same
manner as a chickadee. In song the Kinglet is betrayed by two falling phrases.
…
In
the island’s interior, Kinglets arrive only outside the summer months. In such
a way their presence, especially along the rivers Kusasha and Artemis, herald
the coming winter. However, as many birds I have seen along those banks I have
also counted atop mountain peaks in the same season. Winter has no hold on the
mighty Kinglet, which survives the harshest cold and the deepest snow anywhere in
the territory.
…
It
is my honor to remind the world of the Cuvier’s Kinglet’s existence. Astounding
to me is it that for a hundred years this bird has gone unrecognized by
science, especially when it is so familiar to the inhabitants here on Novasola.
I may take for granted the bird’s presence, so common is it, yet no where in my
studies have I found published descriptions of the bird, save the original
specimen found all the way across the continent.” – Native Birds of Novasola,
1912