Goldcrest

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A big picture of a small bird.

This is the smallest bird in Europe. It is about 9 centimeters long and weighs some 5 grams. So if you wanted to, you could send it by mail and pay the cheapest rate possible. Now I must strongly advise you not to do so as birds aren't things to send by mail. The Goldcrest has a close relative, the Firecrest (which I haven't seen in our garden yet), but it prefers pine trees and such. The Firecrest doesn't care about the environment really. In my garden the Goldcrest sometimes builds a nest in the coniferae.

It may be the smallest bird in Europe, but it certainly is a pretty one!

This bird belongs to the family of Kinglets or Goldcrests (Muscicapidae). It can be spotted in our garden infrequently, but probably is there all the time. It is a resident in our country. In Holland in winter lots of guests from Scandinavia arrive. The bird is 3,5" and weighs 5 grams. It lives in pinewoods, parks and larger gardens mostly. It eats insects and spiders. Compared to the male, the female shows a yellow stripe on the head. The nest is made in coniferae and pine trees from april till june. In it the bird deposits some eight to ten eggs. For such a small bird the breeding period of two weeks is considerably long. After hatching the young must be fed for some 16 days on end.

Name of this bird in various other languages
Dutch	German	French	Polish	Scientific
Goudhaantje	Wintergoldhaenchen	Roitelet huppe	Mysikrólik	Regulus regulus