Lydia,

I would be willing to bet that your "itty bitty birds" were either
GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS or RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS. Both of them are
mainly greenish on the back, with some yellowish tones.

Golden-crowns are very common throughout the year in Western
Washington. In summer, they are mainly in conifer forests, and often
high in the trees. In winter, they spread out into broadleaf forest
and even into non-forested areas, and often feed much closer to the
ground. A couple of days ago, for instance, I saw 2 Golden-crowns near
Boundary Bay, BC in a clump of wild rose bushes no more than 6 feet
high, and 500 yards from the nearest large tree.

Ruby-crowns are in Western Washington only in winter, and are much
less common than Golden-crowns (and less gregarious-- often seen
singly), but are more likely to be seen in shrubbery and low broadleaf
trees.

If you see these birds again, look at the heads. Golden-crowned
Kinglets have an obvious yellow crown stripe (with an extra orange
central stripe in males), bordered by a black stripe and then a white
stripe above the eye. Ruby-crowned Kinglets usually have no visible
patch on the crown (the "ruby crown" is almost always hidden", but
they have an obvious white eye-ring.

Both species of kinglets are among our tiniest birds, next to
hummingbirds.

I hope this helps!

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net




----- Original Message -----
From: Lydia Gaebe Bishop <gizathecat at yahoo.com>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2003 11:23 AM
Subject: Itty, Bitty Yard Birds


Hi Tweets!

Outside my kitchen window I spied some itty-bitty birds flitting
around the rose bushes. I thought they might be warblers of some sort
untill I looked in my bird book and learned warblers go south for the
winter.

These little guys were grayish yellowish green on their backs, and
very tiny.

They were too close to use my binocs on, but too far to get any other
details.

Also spotted from the the same window:

Juncos
White crown sparrows
Towhees
Kinglet

A plain brown sparrow sized bird. This little sparrow was a deep rich
chestnut brown!

Thanks,
Lydia Bishop
near Lake Stevens, WA