Tag Archives: Goldcrest

How do they do it?

It’s always a surprise when I’m woken to the song of a wren (gjerdesmett) in the garden at this time of year. This is not only the second smallest bird in Norway, but along with the smallest bird goldcrest (fuglekonge) they rely almost only on natural food and don’t come to bird feeders. It’s been a relatively snow rich winter with stable conditions over long periods, but somehow this bird has made it through the winter. There have been reports of wrens regularly through the winter in this area, so it’s likely that it has overwintered (some of the local population migrate to milder areas in western Europe). I haven’t heard them in the daytime yet this year, so it’s probably spending the night in one of the bird boxes in the garden and finding food elsewhere!

Regulus regulus in the garden

Nice to know that I can still hear the very high pitched call of the goldcrest (fuglekonge) aka Regulus regulus. That’s what alerted me to their presence in my largest Norway spruce (gran) trees in the garden this morning. Astonishing that Norway’s smallest bird manages to survive this cold (only one day above zero C since New Year) and largely on natural food, only rarely coming to bird feeders. A couple of bad pictures grabbed from a very shaky film I made of a female (yellow crest):

Goldcrest at Storlien

The goldcrest (fuglekonge) delivered by the cat today reminded me of another winter goldcrest! My schoolfriend Geoff Gale was visiting in late winter and we were in the mountains at Storlien just over the border in Sweden at the tree line. We’d just started (cross-country) skiing and suddenly we saw a goldcrest climbing a birch tree looking for food. It subsequently flew onto Geoff’s back (thinking no doubt he was dead wood ;) ). I grabbed the camera and just as I was going to take a memorable picture….it flew over to me and proceeded to examine me for insects…… ;) (Geoff will probably remind me that the order of events was a bit different…)
Nevertheless, I really hadn’t expected to see Norway’s smallest bird in this kind of habitat at this time of year!
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