Goldcrest - in Culture

In Culture

Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) and Pliny (23 AD – 79) both wrote about the legend of a contest amongst the birds to see who should be their king, the title to be awarded to the one that could fly highest. Initially, it looked as though the eagle would win easily, but as he began to tire, a small bird which had hidden under the eagle's tail feathers, emerged to fly even higher and claimed the title. Following from this legend, in much European folklore the Wren has been described as the "king of the birds" or as a flame bearer. However, these terms were also applied to the Regulus species, the fiery crowns of the Goldcrest and Firecrest making them more likely to be the original bearers of these titles, and, because of the legend's reference to the "smallest of birds" becoming king, the title was probably transferred to the equally tiny Wren. The confusion was probably compounded by the similarity and consequent interchangeability of the Greek words for the Wren (βασιλεύς basileus, "king") and the crests (βασιλισκος basiliskos, "kinglet"). In English, the association between the Goldcrest and Eurasian Wren may have been reinforced by the kinglet's old name of "Gold-crested Wren".

This tiny woodland bird has had little other impact on literature, although it is the subject of Charles Tennyson Turner's short poem, "The Gold-crested Wren", first published in 1868. An old English name for the Goldcrest is the "woodcock pilot", since migrating birds preceded the arrival of Eurasian Woodcocks by a couple of days. There are unfounded legends that the Goldcrest would hitch a ride in the feathers of the larger bird, and similar stories claimed that owls provided the transport. Suffolk fishermen called this bird "herring spink" or "tot o'er seas" because migrating Goldcrests often landed on the rigging of herring boats out in the North Sea.