Feathered royalty wearing golden crowns

Temperatures have dropped well below freezing, so my photographic excursions into the back yard have been brief and often unproductive. Highlights over the past two weeks have been visits by a troupe of diminutive  kings and queens. The procession included two species.

Golden-crowned Kinglets move down from their breeding grounds in northern New England and Canada. Some stay here all winter, but most continue south into the lower 48 States. A small flock of these tiny birds suddenly appeared along the back fence. They were very active, and I obtained a short burst of images of only one. The males usually have a bit of red or orange in the middle of their yellow head patch, so this is probably an adult female:

There was a single Ruby-crowned Kinglet among them. The male's red crest is usually hidden. In spring it is much more in evidence:

My remaining photos were taken of birds in and around the feeders, from inside the windows of our front door. The golden-brown autumn leaves provided a nice background for this Tufted Titmouse as it hacked at a sunflower seed:

A Blue Jay briefly commandeered the suet feeder:

White-breasted Nuthatches visited frequently:

Other feeder visitors included a male Red-bellied Woodpecker...

...and a male Northern Cardinal:

Dark-eyed Juncos fed on scattered seed, under the feeders:

A lone Turkey Vulture flew over. I stepped outside for this shot:

Again, in search of a contribution to the reflection meme, I recalled the white heads of these two Bald Eagles, seen during a wildlife cruise out of Ketchikan, Alaska in June, 2014:

This week's header: Golden-crowned Kinglet

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Linking to:

Nature Thursday

Skywatch Friday

Weekend Reflections

Saturday's Critters

Garden Affair

All Seasons

Image-in-ing

Nature Notes

Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday)

Wild Bird Wednesday

My Corner of the World
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Please visit the links to all these posts to see some excellent photos on display
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