Plate 183 – American Golden Crested Wren

On September 25, 1833, John James Audubon and his wife, Lucy, and their son, John Woodhouse, departed from New York City to spend the winter in Charleston, South Carolina, with Rev. John Bachman (see Plate 187) and his family. On January 23, 1834, Audubon and Bachman were exploring maritime woods near Charleston and noticed “great numbers” of the American Golden-crested Wren (Regulus tricolor). The bird is known today as the Golden-crowned kinglet (Regulus satrapa). “So careless of us, that although we would approach within a few feet of them, they were not in the least disconcerted.” Those feelings must have changed when Audubon and Bachman decided that specimens needed to be collected to make sure the birds were not infiltrated by “Regulus ignicappillus.” The common name for Regulus ignicappillus is the Common firecrest. The bird is found commonly in Europe and northwestern Africa. Scientists and the rest of humanity still subject plants and animals to innumerable forms of harm and suffering, but at least cameras, viewing scopes, and binoculars have replaced shotguns to facilitate the study and identification of birds. And to see “great numbers” of Golden-crowned kinglets in South Carolina today would take visiting such places as the Congaree National Park to count the 85 that were reported on Cornell’s eBird system on November 11, 2011 (see eBird Checklist S9205334).