How Does the Ruby-Crowned Kinglet's Crown Work?
Journal
Condor
Volume
41
Issue
2 (March-April)
Year
1939
Pages
79
Section
From Field and Study
Online Text
How Does the Ruby-crowned Kinglet's Crown Work?
The elusive brilliant crown-patch of the male Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Corthylio calendula), the first glimpse of which brings such a thrill for the amateur bird student, was displayed with unusual distinctness as I looked down on a bird from a second-story window. Momentarily the brilliant patch was seen to narrow into a slit, as if closed over by the feathers on either side, like the sbutting of an iris diaphragm with an elongated aperture. Might this be the mechanism of revealing and concealing the crown patch, rather than a simple raising and lowering of the crown feathers?
Frances Carter
Berkeley, California, January 22, 1939
