House Wren

Troglodytes aedon

Compiled by Lisa S. Graham

The House Wren is a small, energetic songbird that brings lively music and bold personality to your yard and bird feeder. If you’ve heard a bubbly, complex stream of trills and rattles coming from a shrub or nest box, chances are a House Wren is nearby.

Compact and plain as compared to other wrens, they are about 4.5 to 5.5 inches long, with a short tail often cocked upward. Plumage is warm brown above darker barring on the wings and tail; the underparts are paler with faint streaking.  A pale eyebrow and relatively fine bill help separate it from other small brown birds.

Want to figure out if you’re seeing a Carolina Wren, a Bewick’s Wren, or a House Wren?

• Carolina Wrens are heavyset, rusty-brown above and  buffy/orange-cinnamon below.  Their bold white eyebrow is one of their most striking field marks.
• Bewick’s Wrens are slimmer – brown above, and white-gray below also with a prominent white eyebrow.  They also have a long, white-tipped tail that often flicks.
• House Wrens are the smallest of the three with dull brown coloring and a faint white eyebrow.

House Wrens are extremely adaptable and widespread, occupying open woodlands, forest edges, yards, parks, and farmsteads. You’ll find them in Central Texas during non-breeding times.  They readily use human structures and nestboxes, which has helped them thrive in settled landscapes.

Active, busy, and often bold, House Wrens forage close to the ground through tangled vegetation – probing crevices and tearing apart bark to find insects and spiders—the core of their diet. They may also take small fruits and seeds occasionally.  Males sing an explosive, chattering song from exposed perches to defend territory and attract mates. They are highly territorial and aggressive toward competitors, sometimes evicting other birds from nest sites.

They use natural cavities, crevices, nestboxes, and even unusual sites like boots or mailboxes. Males often build multiple “dummy” nests within the territory.  Typical clutch size is 4–10 eggs. The female does most of the incubation, and both parents feed the nestlings. The young fledge in about two weeks but may be fed by parents for some time afterward.  House Wrens have a reputation for destroying the eggs or nestlings of other cavity?nesting birds if they can’t use the site themselves.

Some fun facts about the House Wren:

• In some areas they are the main source of nest failure for bluebirds, Tree Swallows, Prothonotary Warblers, and chickadees – not exactly fun, but kind of interesting.
• Male Northern House Wrens in their first breeding year are likely to settle close to an established male.  It’s believed that young males take clues from more experienced males on where to build a nest.
• The oldest recorded Northern House Wren was at least 9 years old, when it was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in New York in 1993.

Sources include All About Birds (Cornell) and Audubon Field Guide.   Photo credit:  Blair Dudeck, Macaulay Library.