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The goldcrest (''Regulus regulus'') is a very small
passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...
bird in the kinglet family. Its colourful golden crest feathers, as well as being called the "king of the birds" in European folklore, gives rise to its English and scientific names. The scientific name, ''R. regulus'', means king or knight. Several subspecies are recognised across the very large distribution range that includes much of the
Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sib ...
and the islands of
Macaronesia Macaronesia (Portuguese: ''Macaronésia,'' Spanish: ''Macaronesia'') is a collection of four volcanic archipelagos in the North Atlantic, off the coasts of Africa and Europe. Each archipelago is made up of a number of Atlantic oceanic islands ...
and
Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...
. Birds from the north and east of its breeding range migrate to winter further south. This kinglet has greenish upper-parts, whitish under-parts, and has two white wingbars. It has a plain face contrasting black irises and a bright head crest, orange and yellow in the male and yellow in the female, which is displayed during breeding. It superficially resembles the
common firecrest The common firecrest (''Regulus ignicapilla''), also known as the firecrest, is a very small passerine bird in the kinglet family. It breeds in most of temperate Europe and northwestern Africa, and is partially migratory, with birds from centra ...
(''Regulus ignicapilla''), which largely shares its European range, but the latter's bronze shoulders and strong face pattern are distinctive. The
song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetiti ...
is a repetition of high thin notes, slightly higher-pitched than those of its relative. Birds on the
Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, :es:Canarias, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to ...
are now separated into two subspecies of the goldcrest, but were formerly considered to be a
subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all specie ...
of the firecrest or a separate species, ''Regulus teneriffae''. The goldcrest breeds in
coniferous Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All ext ...
woodland and gardens, building its compact, three-layered nest on a tree branch. Ten to twelve eggs are incubated by the female alone, and the chicks are fed by both parents; second broods are common. This kinglet is constantly on the move as it searches for insects to eat, and in winter it is often found with flocks of tits. It may be killed by
birds of prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and other smaller birds). In addition to speed and strength, these predat ...
or carry
parasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson h ...
s, but its large range and population mean that it is not considered to present any significant conservation concerns.


Description

The goldcrest is the smallest European bird, in length, with a wingspan and a weight of . It is similar in appearance to a
warbler Various Passeriformes (perching birds) are commonly referred to as warblers. They are not necessarily closely related to one another, but share some characteristics, such as being fairly small, vocal, and insectivorous. Sylvioid warblers The ...
, with olive-green upper-parts, buff-white underparts, two white wing bars, and a plain face with conspicuous black irises. The crown of the head has black sides and a narrow black front, and a bright crest, yellow with an orange centre in the male, and entirely yellow in the female; the crest is erected in display, making the distinctive orange stripe of the male much more conspicuous. The small, thin bill is black, and the legs are dark flesh-brown. Apart from the crest colour, the sexes are alike, although in fresh plumage, the female may have very slightly paler upper-parts and greyer underparts than the adult male. The juvenile is similar to the adult, but has duller upper-parts and lacks the coloured crown. Although the tail and
flight feather Flight feathers (''Pennae volatus'') are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (), singular remex (), while those on the tai ...
s may be retained into the first winter, by then the young birds are almost indistinguishable from adults in the field. The flight is distinctive; it consists of whirring wing-beats with occasional sudden changes of direction. Shorter flights while feeding are a mix of dashing and fluttering with frequent hovering. It moves restlessly among foliage, regularly creeping on branches and up and down trunks.


Identification

The goldcrest is usually easily distinguished from other small birds in its range, but poor views could possibly lead to confusion with the
common firecrest The common firecrest (''Regulus ignicapilla''), also known as the firecrest, is a very small passerine bird in the kinglet family. It breeds in most of temperate Europe and northwestern Africa, and is partially migratory, with birds from centra ...
or
yellow-browed warbler The yellow-browed warbler (''Phylloscopus inornatus'') is a leaf warbler (family Phylloscopidae) which breeds in the east Palearctic. This warbler is strongly migratory and winters mainly in tropical South Asia and South-east Asia, but also in s ...
. The adult common firecrest has a distinguishing face pattern showing a bright white
supercilium The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also k ...
(eyebrow) and black eye-stripe, and the juvenile usually shows enough of this face pattern to be readily distinguished from the plain-faced goldcrest. The yellow-browed warbler has a yellowish supercilium and pale crown stripe, so also shows a different head pattern. The
ruby-crowned kinglet The ruby-crowned kinglet (''Corthylio calendula'') is a very small passerine bird found throughout North America. It is a member of the kinglet family. The bird has olive-green plumage with two white wing bars and a white eye-ring. Males have a ...
, an American ''Regulus'' species and a potential vagrant in Europe, could be more difficult to distinguish. It has a plain face like its Old World cousin, but the male has a red crest without any yellow or a black border. Female and juvenile ruby-crowned kinglets lack the ruby-red crown patch, but compared with the similarly crestless juvenile goldcrest, the American bird is larger in size, has an obvious whitish eyering, and yellowish wing bars.


Voice

The typical contact call of the goldcrest is a thin, high-pitched ''zee'' given at intervals of 1–4 seconds, with all the notes at the same pitch. It sometimes has a more clipped ending, or is delivered more rapidly. The call is higher and less rough than that of the firecrest. The song of the male goldcrest is a very high, thin double note ''cedar'', repeated 5–7 times and ending in a flourish, '. The entire song lasts 3–4 seconds and is repeated 5–7 times a minute. This song, often uttered while the male is foraging, can be heard in most months of the year. There is also a subdued rambling subsong. Male goldcrests sometimes show a territorial response to recordings of the songs or calls of the common firecrest, but the reverse is apparently not true, since the songs of the common firecrest are simpler in construction than those of its relatives. The songs of mainland goldcrests vary only slightly across their range and consist of a single song type, but much more divergence has occurred in the isolated
Macaronesia Macaronesia (Portuguese: ''Macaronésia,'' Spanish: ''Macaronesia'') is a collection of four volcanic archipelagos in the North Atlantic, off the coasts of Africa and Europe. Each archipelago is made up of a number of Atlantic oceanic islands ...
n populations. Not only are there variations between islands and within an island, but individual males on the Azores can have up to three song types. The dialects on the Azores fall into two main groups, neither of which elicited a response from male European goldcrests in playback experiments. There are also two main dialect groups on the Canary islands, a widespread group similar to the European version, and another that is restricted to the mountains of Tenerife. The song variations have been used to investigate the colonisation pattern of the Macaronesian islands by goldcrests, and identified a previously unknown subspecies.


Taxonomy

The kinglets are a small group of birds sometimes included in the
Old World warbler Old World warblers are a large group of birds formerly grouped together in the bird family Sylviidae. The family held over 400 species in over 70 genera, and were the source of much taxonomic confusion. Two families were split out initially, the ci ...
s, but frequently given family status, especially as recent research shows that despite superficial similarities, they are
phylogenetically In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups ...
remote from the warblers. The names of the family Regulidae, and the genus ''Regulus'', are derived from the
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
, a diminutive of , a king. The goldcrest was first described by
Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...
in his in 1758 as ''Motacilla regulus'' (characterised as ). It was moved to the warbler genus '' Sylvia'' by English naturalist John Latham in 1790, and to its current genus by French
zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...
Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier was a major figure in na ...
in 1800. The relationships of the flamecrest or Taiwan firecrest (''Regulus goodfellowi'') of Taiwan have also been a source of much debate. It is sometimes viewed as a race of firecrest, but its territorial song resembles those of the Himalayan races of goldcrest, and genetic data show that it is the closest relative of that species, and, despite its alternative name, only distantly related to the firecrest. The flamecrest diverged from the goldcrest 3.0–3.1  mya (million years ago).


Subspecies


Continental Eurasia

Several subspecies of the goldcrest have been described. In continental
Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelag ...
, there are nine generally accepted and very similar subspecies, differing only in details such as plumage shade. At the genetic level, the two Central Asian forms, ''R. r. sikkimensis'' and ''R. r. himalayensis'', are very close to each other, and have differentiated only in the recent past, but they diverged from the western subspecies around 2.8 mya. * ''R. r. regulus'' (
Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
,
1758 Events January–March * January 1 – Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) publishes in Stockholm the first volume (''Animalia'') of the 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'', the starting point of modern zoologi ...
). Breeds in most of Europe; this is the
nominate subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all speci ...
. * ''R. r. himalayensis'' ( Bonaparte, 1856). Breeds in the
Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 10 ...
; it is similar to the nominate subspecies, but slightly paler above and with whiter underparts. * ''R. r. japonensis'' ( Blakiston, 1862). Breeds in Eastern Asia, including Japan, Korea, China and
Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...
; it is greener and has darker upper-parts than the nominate form, and has broad white wingbars. * ''R. r. tristis'' (Pleske, 1892). Breeds in China and
Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the fo ...
, wintering in northeastern Afghanistan. Records of this race from Ladakh claimed by
Meinertzhagen Meinertzhagen may refer to: People * Annie Meinertzhagen (1889–1928), British ornithologist * Ian Meinertzhagen (born 1944), Canadian neurobiologist * Louis Meinertzhagen (1887–1941), British philatelist * Richard Meinertzhagen (1878–1967), ...
are considered to be fraudulent. It is distinctive, with the black edges to the crest largely absent. The crown of the male is yellower than in other forms, and the underparts are much duller and greyer. * ''R. r. coatsi'' (Sushkin, 1904). Breeds in Russia and Central Asia, and is paler above than the nominate subspecies. * ''R. r. yunnanensis'' (Rippon, 1906). Breeds in the Eastern Himalayas, Burma and China; it is like ''R. r. sikkimensis'', but darker overall with dark green upper-parts and darker buff underparts. * ''R. r. hyrcanus'' ( Zarudny, 1910). Breeds only in Iran; it is like ''R. r. buturlini'', but slightly darker. * ''R. r. buturlini'' (Loudon, 1911). Breeds in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. It is paler above than the nominate subspecies, and greyish-green rather than olive. * ''R. r. sikkimensis'' (Meinertzhagen R. & Meinertzhagen A., 1926). Breeds in India and China. It is darker than ''R. r. himalayensis'', and greener than the nominate subspecies.


The Atlantic islands

Two groups of goldcrest
taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...
are found on the Atlantic islands of
Macaronesia Macaronesia (Portuguese: ''Macaronésia,'' Spanish: ''Macaronesia'') is a collection of four volcanic archipelagos in the North Atlantic, off the coasts of Africa and Europe. Each archipelago is made up of a number of Atlantic oceanic islands ...
. Birds on the
Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, :es:Canarias, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to ...
are ancient colonists, whereas those on the
Azores ) , motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...
are of more recent origin. There are no goldcrests on
Madeira ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...
, where the
Madeira firecrest The Madeira firecrest, Madeira kinglet, or Madeiracrest (''Regulus madeirensis'') is a very small passerine bird endemic to the island of Madeira. It is a member of the kinglet family. Before it was recognised as a separate species in 2003, i ...
is the only ''Regulus'' species. The Canary Islands were colonised in two waves. The first step was the occupation of
Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the Archipelago, archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitant ...
and
La Gomera La Gomera () is one of Spain's Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. With an area of , it is the third smallest of the eight main islands of this archipelago. It belongs to the province of Santa Cruz de Tene ...
1.9–2.3 million years ago, followed by a separate invasion of
El Hierro El Hierro, nicknamed ''Isla del Meridiano'' (the "Meridian Island"), is the second-smallest and farthest-south and -west of the Canary Islands (an autonomous community of Spain), in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, with a populatio ...
and
La Palma La Palma (, ), also known as ''La isla bonita'' () and officially San Miguel de La Palma, is the most north-westerly island of the Canary Islands, Spain. La Palma has an area of making it the fifth largest of the eight main Canary Islands. The ...
1.3–1.8 mya. Birds from the Canary Islands are particularly distinctive having a black forehead, pink-buff underparts and a darker closed wing, and have been sometimes treated either as a subspecies of the common firecrest or as a different ''Regulus'' species altogether. They were sometimes called the Tenerife goldcrest, no matter which of the islands they lived on; however, a 2006 study of the vocalisations of these birds indicate that they actually comprise two subspecies of the goldcrest that are separable on voice; ''R. r. teneriffae'' occurring on Tenerife and the newly described subspecies, ''R. r. ellenthalerae'', the western Canary Islands goldcrest, occurring on the smaller islands of La Palma and El Hierro. *
Tenerife goldcrest The Tenerife goldcrest, ''Regulus regulus teneriffae'', (sometimes considered a separate species, ''R. teneriffae'') is a very small passerine bird in the kinglet family, closely resembling the goldcrest but with a broader black band across the f ...
''R. r. teneriffae'' (Seebohm, 1883). Found on Tenerife and La Gomera, Canary Islands; it is a distinctive, small subspecies with a black forehead and pink-buff underparts. *
Western Canary Islands goldcrest The Western Canary Islands goldcrest, ''Regulus regulus ellenthalerae'', is a very small passerine bird in the kinglet family. It is restricted to the western Canary Islands of La Palma and El Hierro where it is a non-migratory resident. Pr ...
''R. r. ellenthalerae'' (Päckert ''et al.'', 2006). Resident on La Palma and El Hierro, Canary Islands. Differences in songs, genetics and morphology suggests that the Azores were colonised in a single invasion in the late
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
, about 100,000 years ago. It is likely that the initial colonisation was of the easternmost islands, with a subsequent spread to the central and western island groups from the western
caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...
of São Miguel, where both eastern and western song types are found. * Sao Miguel Goldcrest ''R. r. azoricus'' ( Seebohm, 1883). Found only on São Miguel, Azores; it is like ''R. r. inermis'', except the underparts are more olive-buff. * Western Azores goldcrest ''R. r. inermis'' (Murphy & Chapin, 1929). Resident on
Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Including the Komodo Islands off its west coast (but excluding the Solor Archipelago to the east of Flores), the land area is 15,530.58 km2, and t ...
, Faial, Terceira, São Jorge and
Pico Pico may refer to: Places The Moon * Mons Pico, a lunar mountain in the northern part of the Mare Imbrium basin Portugal * Pico, a civil parish in the municipality of Vila Verde * Pico da Pedra, a civil parish in the municipality of Ribe ...
, Azores; its upper-parts are a darker olive-green than those of the nominate form, and the underparts are also darker. * Santa Maria goldcrest ''R. r. sanctaemariae'' (Vaurie, 1954). Found only on
Santa Maria Island (Azores) Santa Maria () is an island in the eastern group of the Azores archipelago (south of the island of São Miguel) and the southernmost island in the Azores. The island is known for its white sand beaches, distinctive chimneys, and dry warm weathe ...
; it is paler than other Azores subspecies and whitish below.


Fossils

There are a few Pleistocene (2.6 million to 12,000 years BP) records from Europe of extant ''Regulus'' species, mostly goldcrests or unidentifiable to species. The only fossil of an extinct ''Regulus'' is a left
ulna The ulna (''pl''. ulnae or ulnas) is a long bone found in the forearm that stretches from the elbow to the smallest finger, and when in anatomical position, is found on the medial side of the forearm. That is, the ulna is on the same side of t ...
from 2.6–1.95 mya in Bulgaria, which was identified as belonging to an extinct species, '' Regulus bulgaricus''. The goldcrest lineage diverged from this apparent ancestor of the common firecrest in the Middle Pleistocene.


Distribution and habitat

The goldcrest breeds in mature lowland and mountain
coniferous Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All ext ...
woodlands, mainly up to , and occasionally to . It uses
spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfam ...
,
larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains fur ...
,
Scots pine ''Pinus sylvestris'', the Scots pine (UK), Scotch pine (US) or Baltic pine, is a species of tree in the pine family Pinaceae that is native to Eurasia. It can readily be identified by its combination of fairly short, blue-green leaves and orang ...
,
silver fir Silver fir is a common name for several trees and may refer to: *''Abies alba ''Abies alba'', the European silver fir or silver fir, is a fir native to the mountains of Europe, from the Pyrenees north to Normandy, east to the Alps and the Car ...
and
mountain pine ''Pinus mugo'', known as bog pine, creeping pine, dwarf mountain pine, mugo pine, mountain pine, scrub mountain pine, or Swiss mountain pine, is a species of conifer, native to high elevation habitats from southwestern to Central Europe and So ...
, and in man-made landscapes also introduced conifers such as
douglas fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three v ...
. Breeding densities of up to 591 pairs per square km (1,530 pairs per square mile) have been recorded in
Norway spruce ''Picea abies'', the Norway spruce or European spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce, 9–17 cm long. It is very close ...
in Ireland, and goldcrests constituted over 60% of all birds found in Welsh Douglas fir and Norway spruce plantations. Broad-leaved woods are used only when some spruce or firs are also present. Sites such as parks and cemeteries are used only when they offer suitable conifers that are not otherwise locally available. The height and nature of any undergrowth is irrelevant. Unlike more specialised birds such as the
Eurasian nuthatch The Eurasian nuthatch or wood nuthatch (''Sitta europaea'') is a small passerine bird found throughout the Palearctic and in Europe. Like other nuthatches, it is a short-tailed bird with a long bill, blue-gray upperparts and a black eye-strip ...
and the Eurasian treecreeper, both of which forage on tree trunks, the kinglets do not need large woodlands, and their population density is independent of forest size. Once breeding is over, this species will readily move into deciduous trees and shrubs,
heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...
and similar more open habitats. The Tenerife subspecies occurs in the mountain region previously occupied by laurisilva, but now dominated by tree heaths. It is common only in that habitat, becoming rare in pine forest, where it occurs only where tree-heath is also available. The goldcrest has a huge range in Eurasia, breeding from Macaronesia to Japan. It is common in middle and northern
temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout ...
and
boreal Boreal may refer to: Climatology and geography *Boreal (age), the first climatic phase of the Blytt-Sernander sequence of northern Europe, during the Holocene epoch *Boreal climate, a climate characterized by long winters and short, cool to mild ...
latitudes of Europe, between the July
isotherms A contour line (also isoline, isopleth, or isarithm) of a function of two variables is a curve along which the function has a constant value, so that the curve joins points of equal value. It is a plane section of the three-dimensional graph ...
, and thus predominantly in cooler climates than the firecrest. Further east it occurs discontinuously through southern
Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...
to
Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, r=Sakhalín, p=səxɐˈlʲin; ja, 樺太 ''Karafuto''; zh, c=, p=Kùyèdǎo, s=库页岛, t=庫頁島; Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ, ''Sahaliyan''; Orok: Бугата на̄, ''Bugata nā''; Nivkh ...
and Japan, in the
Tian Shan The Tian Shan,, , otk, 𐰴𐰣 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, , tr, Tanrı Dağı, mn, Тэнгэр уул, , ug, تەڭرىتاغ, , , kk, Тәңіртауы / Алатау, , , ky, Теңир-Тоо / Ала-Тоо, , , uz, Tyan-Shan / Tangritog‘ ...
mountains, northern Iran, and from the Himalayas east to central China. This species has bred in Iceland since about 1999, and was widespread by 2004, although numbers are affected by hard winters. Breeding occurs intermittently in the
Faroes The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway betw ...
. The goldcrest has occurred as a vagrant in Jordan and Morocco. This species is partly migratory, northernmost populations deserting their breeding areas in winter. Birds winter in Europe and Asia south of the breeding range. Birds in northern
Fennoscandia __NOTOC__ Fennoscandia ( Finnish, Swedish and no, Fennoskandia, nocat=1; russian: Фенноскандия, Fennoskandiya) or the Fennoscandian Peninsula is the geographical peninsula in Europe, which includes the Scandinavian and Kola penin ...
and Russia vacate their territories between late August and early November, with most leaving in late September to mid-October as the first cold weather arrives. Adverse conditions may lead to disorientation, large numbers gathering on ships on overcast or wet nights. Large influxes include 15,000 birds on the
Isle of May The Isle of May is located in the north of the outer Firth of Forth, approximately off the coast of mainland Scotland. It is about long and wide. The island is owned and managed by NatureScot as a national nature reserve. There are now no ...
in October 1982, and nearly 21,000 birds through a single site in Latvia during September and October 1983. Spring migration is complete by late March on the Mediterranean islands, but continues to late April or early May in northern Europe. The spring passage is much lighter than in autumn, suggesting high mortality on migration. A study in the Baltic region showed that northern goldcrests were more likely to migrate, and increased their body mass beforehand; non-migratory southern birds did not increase their fat reserves. The travel speed of migrating goldcrests increased for those leaving later in the autumn, and was greater for the northernmost populations. Migration was faster on routes that crossed the Baltic Sea than on coastal routes, and the birds with the largest fat reserves travelled at the highest speeds. The ability to lay down fat is adversely affected in this tiny bird by poor health. In Hungary, goldcrests stopping temporarily on migration were mostly found in scrub, including
blackthorn ''Prunus spinosa'', called blackthorn or sloe, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae. The species is native to Europe, western Asia, and regionally in northwest Africa. It is locally naturalized in New Zealand, Tasmania, ...
,
hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...
and
pear Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in the Northern Hemisphere in late summer into October. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the Family (biology), family Rosacea ...
, which provided some protection from sparrowhawks. Females migrated slightly earlier than males, but overall there were more males, with an average sex ratio of 1.6:1. Goldcrests can fly in one day, although they keep at a lower level in heavy
headwind A tailwind is a wind that blows in the direction of travel of an object, while a headwind blows against the direction of travel. A tailwind increases the object's speed and reduces the time required to reach its destination, while a headwind has ...
s. This is a tame and inquisitive bird, and tired migrants will land near or on humans, sometimes searching for food on their clothing. The North Atlantic oscillation is an atmospheric phenomenon affecting the weather in Western Europe. When the atmospheric pressure variations in the North Atlantic are large, the springs in Europe are warmer. This brings forward the northward migration of those bird species (including the goldcrest) that winter mainly within western or southern Europe. A general climatic change resulting in more frequent positive North Atlantic oscillation events has led to earlier spring migration of these short-distance migrants since the 1980s. The warmer spring weather brings on plant growth, thus preparing the habitat for returning migrants. The effect is greatest in western and central Europe.


Behaviour


Breeding

The goldcrest is
monogamous Monogamy ( ) is a form of dyadic relationship in which an individual has only one partner during their lifetime. Alternately, only one partner at any one time ( serial monogamy) — as compared to the various forms of non-monogamy (e.g., pol ...
. The male sings during the breeding season, usually while foraging rather than from a perch. It has a display involving bowing its head towards another bird and raising the coloured crest. Firecrests will sometimes defend their territories against goldcrests, but the amount of actual competition between the species may not be very great. A Spanish study suggested that territorial conflicts between species, and other phenomena like males singing mixed or alternating songs, were most frequent when one species locally far outnumbered the other; in other circumstances, the two species learned to ignore each other's songs. However, in very small areas of conifers it is rare for the goldcrest and the firecrest to share territories; either one or the other is present, but not both. A male goldcrest will defend his territory against either species, sometimes including some firecrest phrases in his song. The goldcrest's
nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materi ...
is a well-insulated cup-shaped structure built in three layers. The nest's outer layer is made from moss, small twigs, cobwebs and lichen, the cobwebs also being used to attach the nest to the thin branches that support it. The middle layer is moss, which is lined by an inner layer of feathers and hair. The nest is larger, shallower and less compact than that of the firecrest, with an internal diameter of about , and is constructed by both sexes, although the female does most of the work. It is often suspended from a hanging branch, usually at no great height, although Eric Simms reported nests at heights from . One pair built their nest just above that of a sparrowhawk. A Natural History of the Nests and Eggs of British Birds -Goldcrest -plate 132-cropped.jpg, Old drawing of a nest and small branches of a conifer tree Regulus regulus regulus MHNT.ZOO.2010.11.207.jpg, '' Regulus regulus regulus '' – MHNT Regulus regulus azoricus MHNT.ZOO.2010.11.207.jpg, '' Regulus regulus azoricus '' – MHNT Regulus regulus inermis MHNT.ZOO.2010.11.207.jpg, '' Regulus regulus inermis '' – MHNT Regulus regulus teneriffae MHNT.ZOO.2010.11.jpg, '' Regulus regulus teneriffae '' – MHNT Laying starts at the end of April into early May. The eggs are whitish with very indistinct buff, grey or brown markings at the broad end. The eggs are and weigh , of which 5% is shell. The clutch size in Europe is typically 9–11 eggs, but ranges from 6–13. The eggs are piled up in the nest and the female keeps the eggs warm with her
brood patch A brood patch is a patch of featherless skin on the underside of birds during the nesting season. Feathers act as inherent insulators, and prevent efficient incubation. Birds have solved this evolutionary dilemma by developing dedicated brood pat ...
and also by putting her warm legs into the middle of the pile between the eggs. Within a clutch the size of eggs increases gradually and the last laid egg may be 20% larger than the first egg. Second clutches, which are common, are laid usually while the first nest still has young. The male builds the second nest, then feeds the young in the first nest while the female is incubating in the second; when the first brood has fledged, he joins the female in feeding the second brood. The female goldcrest is not normally fed by her mate while incubating. She is a tight sitter, reluctant to leave the nest when disturbed, and has been recorded as continuing to attend the nest when it has been moved, or even when it is being held. The eggs are maintained at , the female regulating the temperature of the eggs by varying the time spent sitting. She leaves the nest more with increasing air temperature, and incubates more tightly when the light intensity is lower early and late in the day. The female incubates the eggs for 16 to 19 days to hatching, and broods the chicks, which
fledge Fledging is the stage in a flying animal's life between hatching or birth and becoming capable of flight. This term is most frequently applied to birds, but is also used for bats. For altricial birds, those that spend more time in vulnera ...
in a further 17 to 22 days later. Both parents feed the chicks and fledged young, and in very hot weather, the female has been noted as taking drops of water to her chicks in her bill. This species becomes sexually mature after one year, and has an annual adult mortality of over 80 percent giving a life expectancy of around eight months, which is the shortest for any bird apart from a few '' Coturnix'' species.Ricklefs, R E; "Sibling competition, hatching asynchrony, incubation period, and lifespan in altricial birds" in There are nonetheless records of an individual surviving to 4 years 10 months, and even a report of a bird ringed in Winchester in the UK in 1989 and found dead in Morocco 7 years and 7 months later. Although their ranges overlap substantially, hybridisation between goldcrests and firecrests seems to be prevented by differences in courtship rituals and different facial patterns. Even in aviary studies in which a female goldcrest was given an artificial eyestripe to facilitate mating with a male firecrest, the chicks were never raised by the mixed pair, and appeared to be poorly adapted compared to the parent species.


Feeding

All ''Regulus'' species are almost exclusively
insectivorous A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores were ...
, preying on small
arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chiti ...
s with soft
cuticle A cuticle (), or cuticula, is any of a variety of tough but flexible, non-mineral outer coverings of an organism, or parts of an organism, that provide protection. Various types of "cuticle" are non- homologous, differing in their origin, structu ...
s, such as
springtail Springtails (Collembola) form the largest of the three lineages of modern hexapods that are no longer considered insects (the other two are the Protura and Diplura). Although the three orders are sometimes grouped together in a class called ...
s,
aphid Aphids are small sap-sucking insects and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Common names include greenfly and blackfly, although individuals within a species can vary widely in color. The group includes the fluffy white woolly aphids. A t ...
s and spiders. They also feed on the cocoons and eggs of spiders and insects, and occasionally take pollen. All species will catch flying insects while hovering. Although the similarly sized goldcrest and firecrest are often found together, there are a number of factors that minimise direct competition for food. Goldcrests prefer smaller prey than common firecrests. Although both will take trapped insects from spider webs on autumn migration, firecrests will also eat the large
orb-web spider Orb-weaver spiders are members of the spider family Araneidae. They are the most common group of builders of spiral wheel-shaped webs often found in gardens, fields, and forests. The English word "orb" can mean "circular", hence the English na ...
s (on rare occasions kinglets have been found stuck in a spider web, either unable to move or dead).Martens, Jochen; Päckert, Martin "Family Regulidae (Kinglets & Firecrests)" pp. 330–349 in The goldcrest takes a wide variety of prey, especially spiders,
caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sy ...
s, bugs, springtails and
flies Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced m ...
. Larger prey such as oak bush crickets and
tortrix moths The Tortricidae are a family of moths, commonly known as tortrix moths or leafroller moths, in the order Lepidoptera. This large family has over 11,000 species described, and is the sole member of the superfamily Tortricoidea, although the genu ...
may sometimes be taken. Flying insects are taken in hovering flight but not normally pursued; there is a record of a goldcrest attacking a large dragonfly in flight, only to be dragged along by the insect before releasing it unharmed. Goldcrests will occasionally feed on the ground among leaf-litter with tits. Non-animal food is rare, although goldcrests have been seen drinking sap from broken
birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' cont ...
twigs together with tits and nuthatches. The goldcrest feeds in trees, frequently foraging on the undersides of branches and leaves. This is in contrast to the common firecrest, which mainly exploits the upper surface of branches in coniferous habitat and of leaves in deciduous trees. In winter, flocks of goldcrests cover a given distance at only one-third of the speed of common firecrests, taking the smallest prey items ignored by their relative. The differences in behaviour are facilitated by subtle morphological differences; firecrests have broader bills with longer rictal bristles (which protect a bird's eye from food items it is trying to capture), and these features reflect the larger prey taken by the species. The firecrest's less forked tail may reflect its longer episodes of hovering while hunting. Firecrests forage more often while on foot, and have a foot better adapted for perching, whereas the goldcrest's longer hind toe reflects its habit of moving vertically along branches while feeding. It also has deep furrows in the soles of its feet capable of gripping individual needles, while firecrests have a smoother surface. The goldcrest has much the same range and habitat preference as the
common chiffchaff The common chiffchaff (''Phylloscopus collybita''), or simply the chiffchaff, is a common and widespread leaf warbler which breeds in open woodlands throughout northern and temperate Europe and the Palearctic. It is a migratory passerine whi ...
, and there is some evidence that high breeding densities of the kinglet depress the population of the warbler, although the converse is not true. There is no evidence that the species compete for territories, and in any case the chiffchaff is 50% heavier than the goldcrest. Nevertheless, there are 1.5 million breeding pairs of goldcrests in Finland, compared with 0.4 million breeding pairs of chiffchaffs, and only the kinglet has increased in numbers as the area of spruce woodland in the country has expanded. The goldcrest may be out-competing the warbler for food, especially as the larger bird faces more competition from other insectivores, including other '' Phylloscopus'' warblers. Both birds occur in similar forests, but the chiffchaff is found within of the forest edge, with the goldcrest breeding deeper in the woodland. Nevertheless, there is no conclusive evidence that the decline of the chiffchaff subspecies ''Phylloscopus collybita abietinus'' in parts of Finland is due to competition with the
willow warbler The willow warbler (''Phylloscopus trochilus'') is a very common and widespread leaf warbler which breeds throughout northern and temperate Europe and the Palearctic, from Ireland east to the Anadyr River basin in eastern Siberia. It is strong ...
and goldcrest. Outside the breeding season, small groups of goldcrests maintain exclusive winter feeding territories, which they defend against neighbouring groups. As they roam around their territory, they frequently join loose flocks of other wanderers such as tits and warblers. This kinglet, like other species that prefer
mixed-species foraging flock A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species that join each other and move together while foraging. These ar ...
s in winter, hunts over a greater range of heights and vegetation types than when feeding alone. For species that tend to feed in flocks, foraging success while in a flock was about twice that for solitary birds. A consequence of feeding in a flock is that foraging sites may be restricted to avoid competition with other species. In a Swedish study, coal tits and goldcrests foraged in the outer foliage, while the larger
willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist so ...
and crested tits used the inner canopy. In sites where the numbers of willow and crested tits was artificially reduced, goldcrests and coal tits extended their foraging to include the inner canopy, but did not do so where the larger tits were retained. In some areas, wintering birds have developed the habit of coming to feeding stations and bird tables to take fat, sometimes with warblers such as the
common chiffchaff The common chiffchaff (''Phylloscopus collybita''), or simply the chiffchaff, is a common and widespread leaf warbler which breeds in open woodlands throughout northern and temperate Europe and the Palearctic. It is a migratory passerine whi ...
and blackcap.


Winter survival

Several small passerine species survive freezing winter nights by inducing a lower
metabolic rate Metabolism (, from el, μεταβολή ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cell ...
and
hypothermia Hypothermia is defined as a body core temperature below in humans. Symptoms depend on the temperature. In mild hypothermia, there is shivering and mental confusion. In moderate hypothermia, shivering stops and confusion increases. In severe ...
, of a maximum of below normal body temperature, in order to reduce energy consumption overnight. However, in freezing conditions, it may be that for very small birds, including the tiny goldcrest, the energy economies of induced hypothermia may be insufficient to counterbalance the negative effects of hypothermia including the energy required to raise body temperature back to normal at dawn. Observations of five well-fed birds suggest that they maintain normal body temperatures during cold nights by metabolising fat laid down during the day, and that they actually use behavioural
thermoregulation Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperatur ...
strategies, such as collective roosting in dense foliage or snow holes to survive winter nights. Two birds roosting together reduce their heat loss by a quarter, and three birds by a third. During an 18‑hour winter night, with temperatures as low as in the north of its range, goldcrests huddled together can each burn off fat equivalent to 20% of body weight to keep warm. Migrating birds rely largely on stored fat and they also metabolise protein as a supplementary source of energy. Those with a relatively large amount of fat, may make stops during migration of only 1–2 days; although they have lost weight since commencing their journey, they have enough energy reserves to reach the wintering areas. The proportion of migrating males increases as they travel south through Europe. There is competition within the species even during migration, and the larger and more aggressive males may get more food. Their death rate is therefore lower than that of the females both on the southward migration, and in resident populations.


Predators and parasites

Throughout the goldcrest's range, the main predator of small woodland birds is the
Eurasian sparrowhawk The Eurasian sparrowhawk (''Accipiter nisus''), also known as the northern sparrowhawk or simply the sparrowhawk, is a small bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. Adult male Eurasian sparrowhawks have bluish grey upperparts and orange-barr ...
, which has a diet consisting of up to 98% of birds. Merlins, tawny and long-eared owls also hunt goldcrests. The erratic movements and flights of small woodland birds, which are vulnerable to attack while away from cover, may help to confuse their predators. The goldcrest has only very rarely been recorded as a host of the
common cuckoo The common cuckoo (''Cuculus canorus'') is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, Cuculiformes, which includes the roadrunners, the anis and the coucals. This species is a widespread summer migrant to Europe and Asia, and winters in Africa. I ...
, a widespread European
brood parasite Brood parasites are animals that rely on others to raise their young. The strategy appears among birds, insects and fish. The brood parasite manipulates a host, either of the same or of another species, to raise its young as if it were it ...
. The goldcrest is a host of the widespread moorhen flea, ''Dasypsyllus gallinulae'', and of the
louse Louse ( : lice) is the common name for any member of the clade Phthiraptera, which contains nearly 5,000 species of wingless parasitic insects. Phthiraptera has variously been recognized as an order, infraorder, or a parvorder, as a resul ...
''Philopterus reguli''. The amblycerous mite '' Ricinus frenatus'' has been found on the eastern goldcrest subspecies, ''R. r. japonensis'' in Japan, and at the other end of the range in birds of the nominate subspecies on the
Faroes The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway betw ...
and in Spain. These lice move over the host's body, and have strong mouthparts that pierce the host's skin so that they can feed on blood, and sometimes feather material. A number of feather mites have been recorded in the genus ''Regulus''; these mites live on fungi growing on the feathers. Retrieved 22 October 2010 The fungi found on the plumage may feed on the
keratin Keratin () is one of a family of structural fibrous proteins also known as ''scleroproteins''. Alpha-keratin (α-keratin) is a type of keratin found in vertebrates. It is the key structural material making up Scale (anatomy), scales, hair, Nail ...
of the outer feathers or on feather oil.


Status

The goldcrest has a large range, estimated at 13.2 million km2 (5.1 million mi2) and a total population estimated at 80–200 million individuals, and it is therefore classed as
least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. ...
on the
IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biolo ...
. There was some northward range expansion in Scotland, Belgium, Norway, and Finland during the 20th century, assisted by the spread of conifer plantations. The population is currently stable, although there may be temporary marked declines in harsh winters. Although dense conifer growth can provide shelter for roosting at night, losses in hard winters can be heavy. In a Finnish study, only one-tenth of the wintering goldcrest population, which mainly fed on spiders, survived to spring. Each group roamed within a defined winter territory, and their winter survival depended on the density of the food supply. For these northern birds there is a trade off between staying put and risking starvation, or facing the perils of migration. Even in somewhat milder regions, where over-wintering is normal, exceptionally cold winters can cause such heavy losses that breeding populations take several years to recover. In 1930, the English ornithologist
Thomas Coward Thomas Alfred Coward (8 January 1867 – 29 January 1933), was an English ornithologist and an amateur astronomer. He wrote extensively on natural history, local history and Cheshire. Life He was born at 8 Higher Downs, Bowdon, Cheshire ( ...
wrote:
Until the severe winter of 1916–17 the Goldcrest was abundant and widespread, nesting in all the wooded portions of our islands; in 1920 it could have little more than an obituary notice, for the nesting stock was practically "wiped out." ... and for some years, even as a winter visitor, the Goldcrest remained rare, absent from most of its nesting haunts. It is, however, now fully re-established.
Conversely, populations can expand rapidly after a series of mild winters. In lowland Britain, there was an increase of 48% following the 1970/71 winter, with many pairs spreading into deciduous woodlands where they would not normally breed.


In culture

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...
(384–322 BC) and Pliny (23–79 AD) both wrote about the legend of a contest among the birds to see who should be their king, the title to be awarded to the one that could fly highest. Initially, it looked as though the eagle would win easily, but as he began to tire, a small bird that had hidden under the eagle's tail feathers emerged to fly even higher and claimed the title. Following from this legend, in much European folklore the
wren Wrens are a family of brown passerine birds in the predominantly New World family Troglodytidae. The family includes 88 species divided into 19 genera. Only the Eurasian wren occurs in the Old World, where, in Anglophone regions, it is commonl ...
has been described as the "king of the birds" or as a flame bearer. However, these terms were also applied to the ''Regulus'' species, the fiery crowns of the goldcrest and firecrest making them more likely to be the original bearers of these titles, and, because of the legend's reference to the "smallest of birds" becoming king, the title was probably transferred to the equally tiny wren. The confusion was probably compounded by the similarity and consequent interchangeability of the Greek words for the wren ( , "king") and the crests ( , "kinglet"). In English, the association between the goldcrest and Eurasian wren may have been reinforced by the kinglet's old name of "gold-crested wren". It has had little other impact on literature, although it is the subject of
Charles Tennyson Turner Charles Tennyson Turner (4 July 1808 – 25 April 1879) was an English poet. Born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, he was an elder brother of Alfred Tennyson; his friendship and the "heart union" with his brother is revealed in ''Poems by Two Brothe ...
's short poem, "The Gold-crested Wren", first published in 1868. Retrieved 14 November 2010 An old English name for the goldcrest is the "woodcock pilot", since migrating birds preceded the arrival of Eurasian woodcocks by a couple of days. There are unfounded legends that the goldcrest would hitch a ride in the feathers of the larger bird, and similar stories claimed that owls provided the transport. Suffolk fishermen called this bird "herring spink" or "tot o'er seas" because migrating goldcrests often landed on the rigging of herring boats out in the
North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...
. "Spink" is an old name for a finch.


See also

*


References


External links


Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Songs and sonagrams

Videos, photos and sounds on the Internet Bird Collection
{{Authority control Regulus (bird) Birds of Eurasia Birds described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Articles containing video clips