House wren, wren house

Of all of the birds that frequent my garden, I think the wrens are my favorite. Besides being virtually fearless, they're one of the noisiest birds around, their loud happy song is beautiful to my ears. They're creative nesters too, building nests in the strangest of places -- I believe it's the Carolina wrens that do this mainly, but other wrens may too. What makes wrens so welcome in my garden though is they eat caterpillars -- insects provide most of their food.

I've got a couple of wren houses in my yard, and although I usually see Carolina wrens around, this year I've attracted some house wrens too. Or maybe they've replaced the Carolina wrens, as I've read that house wrens do not like to share their territories with other cavity nesting birds. I'm hoping the Carolina wrens aren't gone, but only time will tell. This post is about the house wrens though.

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I meant to do that

Do you remember the finch nest on my front porch? It was built in April, used to raise some chicks, then used again in May to rear a second brood. By the time that last chick took flight, the nest was looking pretty sad -- it had quite a bit of bird "droppings" on it and around it. Once the last chick left I waited a while to see if the nest would be used again, but it wasn't, so I could have cleaned it up at that time.

Since cleanup would involve not just removing the nesting materials -- which would be easy -- but also some scraping and/or washing of the walls in that corner, I put it off. There was always something more fun to do.

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Nesting Time!

One bird that is always welcome in my garden is the wren. (Truthfully, all birds are welcome in my garden, except for maybe a swarm of grackles because they'll empty the bird feeder in 2 minutes.) Wrens eat harmful bugs like caterpillars, they have a really nice song, and they're pretty curious. I mainly see Carolina wrens here, but we'll get house wrens too. I think I've seen a Winter wren once or twice as well, but sometimes it's hard to tell what type of little brown bird is flitting around under the plants. You see a little motion, catch a glimpse of brown, and that's about it until it bursts out and flies away.

Photo by Manjith Kainickara, Wikimedia Commons

Another thing I like about wrens is they're really curious, and sometimes make their nests is the strangest places. I've read stories about wrens making nests in old boots, in the center of a big ball of twine, and inside somebody's bathroom!

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