Watching the birds at my Prescott feeders grew a bit mundane as the days were shortening in early September. All the tanagers and grosbeaks, along with the male rufous hummingbirds, had mostly migrated south. These colorful migrants left the suet and seeds to the year-round mountain residents: nuthatches, titmice, woodpeckers, and bushtits, all markedly plainer and predominately dressed in black, white, and shades of gray. The only bright colors were the blues of the scrub jays and the yellows of the goldfinches.
A tell-tale sign of the change in seasons was when a new bird appeared several weeks ago, a chipping sparrow that was soon followed by a second. Regular late summer visitors, they've been exploring my yard ever since, harvesting the seeds of drying wildflowers and even scavenging scattered millet kernels from below my own seed feeder. With a plain buff chest and a streaked black-and-brown backside, the most distinguishable feature of the sparrow is its rusty cap and black eye stripe.
Another new bird started making appearances several days ago, standing out first because of its size - no larger than a bushtit - but also because it was noticeably alone. At first I thought it was a female goldfinch because it was yellowish and rather plain. But upon closer inspection it was closer to olive-green and flitted about, trying to land on the suet feeder, something a goldfinch never does.
The bird made regular visits, avoiding the melees of multiple birds feeding at one time by finding quiet moments to poke around for morsels. It didn't take long for me to identify it as a ruby-crowned kinglet, not a normal summer bird in my Prescott neighborhood. I'm more used to seeing the species in Phoenix, during the winter. In fact I've only seen a couple of them in Prescott on my very infrequent visits to the area in the fall and winter.
The individual at my feeder in Prescott this week was a female. She was quite typical for the breed: small, with white eye-rings, white bars on her wings, yellow wing highlights, and lots of darting from branch to branch. However the ruby-crowned kinglet is named for the male who flashes bright red crown feathers when he's attracting a mate.
It's quite a display and one more good reason to head south into the desert in the coming cooler months.
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| Female ruby-crowned kinglet in Prescott last week. |
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| Female ruby-crowned kinglet at my Prescott feeder last week. |
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| Female ruby-crowned kinglet at my Prescott feeder last week. |
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