Kinglets have made their way to the area

As fall progresses and the daylight hours shorten, more and more winter birds make their way back into and through our area.

Last week the first ruby-crowned kinglet appeared in the yard where I live in Conway. Several folks have been happy to report finding ruby-crowned kinglets in their yards of late, and a few have been delighted to find golden-crowned kinglet as well. Sometimes referred to as “micro-birds,” kinglets are tiny, active birds that flit through foliage searching for insects and larvae while they call nearly constantly.

Like a number of other birds, kinglets are fond of native fruits and berries, especially those of wax myrtle. Ruby-crowned are much more commonly found in backyards than their golden-crowned cousins, where they spend more time foraging lower in the tree canopy and amid shrub cover. Golden-crowneds usually spend more time higher in the trees. Ruby-crowneds will also visit backyard feeders for items such as sugar water, grape jelly, dried mealworms and suet, and may return to the same backyards for successive winters.

White-throated sparrow numbers appear to be increasing daily now. These sparrows rarely visit bird feeders, preferring to forage on the ground beneath or very close to shrub cover. However, they are quite fond of white proso millet and will occasionally visit platform-type feeders or forage beneath other feeders containing the small white seeds. Once common backyard birds in winter, white-throated sparrows are rapidly disappearing from residential areas due primarily to the loss of appropriate shrub cover and the unmitigated increase of free-roaming domesticated predators.

While I’ve not yet seen (or heard of) any in our area, dark-eyed juncos should soon be arriving for the season. Familiar to many birders as “snowbirds,” juncos frequently associate with groups of white-throated sparrows and behave in a similar manner, although they seem less reluctant to visit bird feeders stocked with white proso millet. Alas, like white-throated sparrows, their numbers are declining in residential backyards for the same reasons.

Baltimore oriole numbers continue to increase as these wonderful birds make their way into our area for the winter season. Recent reports of backyard sightings range from Little River to Pawleys Island. At least a half-dozen are currently visiting the yard where I live for sugar water, grape jelly, dried mealworms and shelled peanuts.

Several folks have been happy to report hummingbirds continue to visit their backyard feeders and flowers. While the vast majority of these winged wonders have already made their way farther south for the season, some will remain in our area until spring, when they’ll leave for their own ancestral breeding areas.

This story was originally published November 4, 2015 at 4:06 AM with the headline "Kinglets have made their way to the area."