Educate Yourself About the House Wren and Other Wrens
House Wren
The House Wren has a slender, slightly decurved bill, light eye-ring, gray-brown body, drab brown plumage, and a tail often cocked. Its length is 4-5in (10-13cm) Its wingspan is 6in (15cm) Its voice is a series of rattles and trills, ending with a descending series of bubbling trills, Its call is generally low, dry, and short with soft calls.
Their eggs are white speckled with red-brown dots, with usually 2 clutches consisting of 6-8 or (5-12) eggs.They both incubate for about 13 days, and fledging time is around 12-18 days. Both feed, (sometimes only the male) their young. Male and female look alike.
The House Wren is easy distinguished from other wrens by its grey body, narrow black bars on its wings, and tail. They are also called the Jenny Wren, and have been one of the most familiar and beloved backyard companions for generations in America. They can be found in brushy hedgerows, and edges of wooded areas, every where across the U.S., except for a patch of Southwest desert.
A gardener’s best friend, because of its entire diet consisting of every little unwanted insect and bug that can be found in a lovely bird feeding garden. From cabbage butterflies, crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, gypsy moths, as well as ants wasps, ticks, flies and bees, located on or close to the ground.
The House Wren is a fun little brown bird to observe, the classic “LBB” (little brown bird), with its enthusiastic singing, and temperamental at times, so be careful not to walk to close to a nesting site, or you might get a scolding. Wrens are restless birds, always on the go, with their tails erect, except for short stops with their beaks pointed to the sky and tail pointed low to perform an exuberant, bubbling song, but just for a minute.
When the male arrives home after spring migration from the tropics, he will pick out a nesting territory in the size of ½ -3 acres (0.2-1.2ha), usually close to last years nesting spot by singing from dead trees. The House Wren will start the building of the nest before the female arrives, in hope she will approve, and chose one of the started nests. He will cram sticks into abandoned nest boxes, holes, and other strange places like flower pots, in tractor axels, old booths, anything with an opening. When the female arrives, she will choose a mate, and a started nest site, lining them with hair, catkins, cocoons, and feathers, but if none are to her liking, she will start one of her own.
If by chance the food is scares one year, the female can leave the chick-rearing to the male, and move on to another male’s territory, where she will start another clutch of eggs.
If you like to attract the House Wren, and other wrens like the Winter Wren, (common in forests along the Pacific Coast, and in the Rockies, the far North, and the Appalachians), the Marsh Wren, (common in any area of the country), and the Bewick’s Wren (common all over the U.S. but hard to find in the West trough the Appalachians, and east to Texas), to your lovely bird feeding garden, plant pines, brambles, elderberries, Sweetgum, and bayberries.
Fill your hanging bird feeders and bird tables with chopped peanuts, and mixtures of suet, peanut-butter, cornmeal and hulled peanuts, for an extra delightful treat. You can also build a brush pile in the corner of your backyard or close to some woody areas near by, for shelter and roosting opportunities. Putting up nesting boxes and bird houses are also welcomed, and will often be occupied by these appeling LBB's.
