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Perching Birds
House Wren
Troglodytes
aedon
Description4 1/2 -5 1/4" (11-13 cm). A tiny bird
with a short tail, often held cocked over the back. Dusky brown
above, paler below, with no distinctive markings. Winter Wren is
similar but smaller and darker, with shorter tail and pale
eyebrow.
VoiceA gurgling, bubbling, exuberant song, first
rising, then falling.
HabitatResidential areas, city parks, farmlands,
and woodland edges.
Nesting5-8 white eggs, thickly speckled with
brown, in a cup lined with feathers and other soft material
contained within a mass of sticks and grass, placed in a natural
cavity or bird box.
RangeBreeds from British Columbia east across
Canada to New Brunswick, and south to southeastern Arizona, northern
Texas, Tennessee, and northern Georgia. Winters north to southern
California, Gulf Coast states, and Virginia. Also in tropical
America.
Discussion This wren often nests in odd places
such as mailboxes, flowerpots, and even the pockets of coats on
clotheslines. When competing for a nest site, the House Wren may
throw out the nest, eggs, and even the young of other hole-breeding
birds. In the process this bird may kill its competitors, or if they
are more powerful, it harasses them by filling the hole with its own
nest material. If House Wrens return in spring to find an old nest
still in place, they usually remove it stick by stick, then proceed
to rebuild, often using the very material they've just discarded.
Outside the breeding season, House Wrens are shy and much less in
evidence than when they are singing during the breeding
season.
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