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==Taxonomy== | ==Taxonomy== | ||
| − | + | There has been several rumblings about splitting this species into several species, with for example the Howell and Webb: A Guide to the birds of Mexico and Northern Central America expecting four species in that area: Northern House Wren, Southern House Wren, Brown-throated Wren, and Cozumel Wren. Most authorities seem to feel that the arguments are currently to weak to recognize these splits. One split that seems to have been accepted is [[Cobb's Wren]] of the [[Falkland Islands]]. | |
==Habitat== | ==Habitat== | ||
Residential areas, city parks, farmlands, and woodland edges. | Residential areas, city parks, farmlands, and woodland edges. | ||
Revision as of 01:08, 9 September 2007
- Troglodytes aedon
Identification
4 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.
Similar Species
Winter Wren is similar but smaller and darker, with shorter tail and pale eyebrow.
Distribution
Breeds 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.
Voice
A gurgling, bubbling, exuberant song, first rising, then falling.
Taxonomy
There has been several rumblings about splitting this species into several species, with for example the Howell and Webb: A Guide to the birds of Mexico and Northern Central America expecting four species in that area: Northern House Wren, Southern House Wren, Brown-throated Wren, and Cozumel Wren. Most authorities seem to feel that the arguments are currently to weak to recognize these splits. One split that seems to have been accepted is Cobb's Wren of the Falkland Islands.
Habitat
Residential areas, city parks, farmlands, and woodland edges.
Behaviour
Nesting
5-8 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. 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.
