Scientific name: Regulus ignicapillus (Temminck, 1820)
Bird group: Warblers
Field characters. 9 cm. Readily distinguished from Goldcrest by conspicuous white supercilium and black eye-stripe. Has orange (male) or yellow (female) crown-stripe, bordered black at each side, and small black moustachial stripe. Upperparts green, underparts white. Two distinct white wing-bars, as in Goldcrest. Bronze-golden spot on sides of neck is good field mark, especially when the head pattern cannot be established properly in dense vegetation. Juvenile has white supercilium, but black stripes reduced and yellow or orange crown absent. Outside breeding season sometimes found together with tits and Goldcrests, but not involved in large influxes, in contrast to Goldcrest.
Voice. Call 'zit' or 'zeet', perceptibly lower in pitch, less thin and less feeble than Goldcrest's and often given singly. Song a repeated single note, ending in a trill.
Distribution. Fairly common breeding bird. Mainly resident, but moves out of northern part of range in some years.
Habitat. Spruce forest, but outside breeding season more often in mixed and deciduous forest than Goldcrest.
Food. Small invertebrates, found on branches and leaves, both high up in trees or close to the ground.