House Wren

Here's a House Wren I met this summer. This is one of the two wrens in my area, the other being the Carolina Wren, which has lighter reddish-brown feathers. Both wrens have a rotund look, with fairly long, slightly curved beak. While the Carolina Wren can handle NJ winters, the House Wren prefers to spend the winter in warmer locales.

House Wrens are very competitive when it comes to nests, attacking adult birds and/or destroying eggs of other cavity-nesting birds. Even Tree Swallows, considered fairly obnoxious and feisty birds, can be victimized by angry House Wrens looking for a nesting spot.

They are one of the few birds known to employ spiders to keep their nests clean. They appear to intentionally bring spider egg sacs into their nests so that the spiders eat the mites that like to parasitize the House Wren nests. (Like many birds, House Wrens will also eat insects and spiders. I'm not sure I'd be all that comfortable if I were a spider that hatched in a House Wren nest.)

July 18, 2021 at Scherman Hoffman Wildlife Sanctuary
Photo 148188175, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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