Carolina Wrens Around the House
The little brown Carolina Wren pair with their perky tails and loud voice builds a nest somewhere around our house each year. This year we photographed their nest in the hanging basket on the porch. This lens contains information about Carolina Wrens and lots of photographs of their nest and babies.
Carolina Wren Facts and Fun
Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus), like the name implies, is a southern bird, although its range extends into the northeastern United States. This is the most common wren in South Louisiana. Unlike its northern cousin, the house wren (which we rarely or never see), it gets along well with other cavity nesting birds. These perky little brown birds, with the big voice are great to have around the vegetable garden, especially if you garden organically. When they are nesting (and they will nest 3-4 times down here in the south), they devour thousands of harmful insects and larvae.
The quote by Thalassa Crusco comes to mind when I see a pair of Carolina Wrens making hundreds of trips to their nest bringing juicy bugs to the nestlings.
Today I am sure no one needs to be told that the more birds a yard can support, the fewer insects there will be to trouble the gardener the following year.
According to Martin, Zim and Nelson in American Wildlife and Plants A Guide to Wildlife Food Habits, a Carolina Wren's diet consists mainly of animal food, including ants and other Hymenoptera, flies and millipedes. Fragments of small vertebrate animals are commonly found in their stomachs. Plant food makes up a small part of their diet and consists of Poision-ivy, Bayberry, Pine, Oak and Sweetgum.
A wide variety of birds eat suet and Carolina Wrens love it. We put it out all year long, so we make a special "no-melt" kind. You'll find the recipe below.
Home Made Suet
2 cups (1 block) of LARD (animal fat)
1 cup CRUNCHY Peanut butter (cheap kind)
1 cup of Oat meal
1 cup of unbleached flour
1 cup of corn meal or wheat germ
Melt the lard a little in a big glass bowl (30 sec. in the microwave) and mix all of the ingredients together. It gets messy so let the kids get involved, they'll love it! Line a rectangular pan with a sheet of wax paper and press the mixture in. Pop it in the freezer for an hour or so, then cut it into blocks. We find that smaller ones (4" x 2") work best because the birds eat it before it can mildew in the hot, humid weather. Store the blocks in a ziploc bag in the freezer and refill your suet feeder as needed.
These little birds have a very loud voice for their size and the males love to sing. The male of the pair that built a nest in the hanging pot would sing with a bug in his mouth almost every time he brought food to the nest.
Listen to the song of the Carolina Wren.
A very interesting and endearing fact is that Carolina Wrens mate for life and that they stay together even when they are not breeding. We were able to observe this first hand with a pair which had a male with white wing and tail feathers. We observed this pair at Christmas in the "birds'" Christmas tree, gobbling up the suet together, then during breeding season and throughout the year.
Carolina Wrens will nest in standard Bluebird boxes with a 1 1/2" opening, but they will also use smaller houses with a 1 1/4 inch opening. Carolina wrens do not just nest in cavities, however, they do like to have a bit of an overhang of sorts when they choose a spot that is not a box. Around our house they've built their dome shaped nest of pine needles, leaves, fine grass and feathers in such an assortment of places and things that it calls for a list.
Unusual Places Where Carolina Wrens Have Nested
Carolina Wrens build their nests in many strange places. Here's a list of some of the odd ones that we have observed. Vote for the ones that you have observed and feel free to add any other unusual places in which you have seen these cute little birds nest.
Guide to Eastern Birds' Nests
Peterson Field Guide: Eastern Birds' Nests
Amazon Price: $13.60 (as of 11/24/2009)
Photo Journal of the Carolina Wren's Nest.
We were lucky to have a pair of Carolina Wrens build a nest in a hanging basket on our front porch. We were able to get some photographs with our automatic motion sensor camera and also our hand-held Canon camera.
The male wren builds many "dummy" nests in different places in the pair's territory. The female chooses one and spruces it up, then lays 4-7 brown speckled eggs. She incubates for 12 to 16 days. When the chicks hatch, they have no feathers, are blind and helpless.
Both the male and female care for the young so they grow quickly.
During this time the chicks are bottomless pits and the parents continuously bring larger and larger insects to stuff in their gaping mouths.
Right before fledging, the chicks almost attack the parents when they bring them food.
When they are 12 to 14 days old they fledge and it happens quickly. Notice the little one's tail as it heads into the plant over the nest.
"They were just here. Where did they go?"
Oh, there they are! Come here, I have a big, juicy bug for you.
Our Carolina Wrens are at it Again!
The Carolina Wren pair that first nested in the Christmas Wreath that was left up too long (My husband LOVES Christmas and hates to see it go) and then in the hanging basket on the edge of the porch, have now nested around the corner in the window which holds our emergency (hurricane) A/C unit. This makes nest number three.
We first became aware of nest building activity when the cats and I heard little scritch-scratch sounds coming from outside on the right side of the window A/C unit. The cats took turns standing on the air-conditioner to peer out at the little pair as they busily brought pine needles, leaves, roots, moss and some feathers and arranged their dome nest in the small space.
Before we knew it, Mother Wren had laid four eggs and was sitting tight.
The eggs hatched a couple of days ago. I knew because I began hearing the male give his, "Honey, I'm bringing food home" song. I just checked and took a picture and it looks like we have 3 (maybe 4) baby Carolina Wrens. We'll count this as Day 3.
Carolina Wren babies on Day 11. They fledged a couple of days later.
There was an old Man
Who said: "It is just as I feared!
Two owls and a hen, Four larks and a wren
Have all built their nests in my beard"
by Edward Lear
1812-1888, English landscape Painter and Writer of an original kind of nonsense verse called the limerick.
Farmers Remember Quote
Carolina Wrens to Wear and Enjoy
The Wren-House
by Evaleen Stein
And some bits of wood,
And I made a little house
Nicely as I could.
I put on a mossy-green
Little pointed roof,
And I cut a tiny door
That is pussy-proof.
For I hope some little wrens
To our yard will come
And will choose my little house
For their little home.
I shall hang it in the boughs
Of the apple-tree,
And I'm sure as rent for it
They will sing to me!
Carolina Wren Blogs
- Who's coming to your bird feeder this winter?
- On the positive side, data documents the northward spread of cardinals, red-bellied woodpeckers and Carolina wrens. To become a FeederWatcher, ...
- November, a harbinger of things to come
- My yard needs more such birds. Will another late spotted towhee be found this month? Will another vagrant Carolina wren colonize the Peace Garden State? ...
- Leave your leaves this fall to attract hungry birds
- Throughout the winter, towhees rustle among leaves for eggs and larvae; song sparrows two-foot scratch for bugs; Carolina wrens pick for morsels; ...
- From Toxic Dust and Algae to Ill Winds From Africa
- Researchers also made risk maps for a spider-eating bird, the Carolina wren, which could be exposed to PCBs through eating spiders. ...
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Tell us about your experiences with Carolina Wrens.
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Reply
- Mary Lou in Florida Mary Lou in Florida Jul 26, 2009 @ 9:29 am
- We, too, had a nest in a planter. It had three eggs in it. One day, we were able to see one baby. In the next 2 days, the nest was empty and appeared deserted. I haven't touched it, but am fearful that the baby/babies died. Or could the parents have moved them somehow? This is our first experience with them and we were loving it!
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Reply
- Mary Mary Jul 5, 2009 @ 2:57 pm | in reply to naturegirl7
- Thanks for the reply - I hope you're right and I'm on the lookout for the 'little family' to make a reappearance....
Mary
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Reply
- naturegirl7 naturegirl7 Jul 4, 2009 @ 6:52 pm | in reply to Mary
- The babies fledge about 2 weeks after hatching. More that likely your babies are fine and are hiding in the shrubbery and their parents are feeding them there. You may see the little family in a week or so as the youngsters become more coordinated and learn to feed themselves.
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Reply
- Mary Mary Jul 4, 2009 @ 2:58 pm
- I had a pair of Carolina Wrens who nested in a decorative wreath on my porch this summer. Everything seemed to be going according to the textbook - in other words they built a nest and then they seemed to be bringing spiders and bugs to what must have been baby birds in the nest. Long story short -- after all this busy activity for weeks -- the day before yesterday (July 2) during the afternoon I realized the birds had completely vanished. I was really devastated and thought something (bad) must have happened to them and started looking up nesting and fledging behavior on the internet. I'm hoping that the babies fledged and everyone has taken off into the woods or something. Any guesses on what could have happened to the wrens from more expert birders out there? Thank you ! Mary
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Reply
- FloraAndFauna FloraAndFauna Jun 30, 2009 @ 4:19 pm
- My brother and his wife left the window open too long or too often and a pair of Carolina wrens built their nest in their shower in something hanging from the pole, so the human landlords had to forget about closing their window for awhile... they must have been good hosts as the wrens built on a shelf in their bedroom closet the next year. They said the birds would fly over their heads and out the window in the morning while they were laying in bed. I guess one could put a sheet of newspaper on the floor under the nest??? Or do they not poo near the nest? Mine are in a tool caddy on a shelf on my carport right now, so I haven't noticed.
A sad thing about cowbirds is that the baby, once grown, tends to lay it's eggs in the same species of bird as it grew up with - they seem more "parental" to it, perhaps. Imprinted? Ours tend to "prey on" cardinals, and can really put a dent in the cardinal population.
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Carolina Wren Links
Vote for your favorite link on the list or add one that you think is better.
All About Birds: Carolina Wren
Comprehensive information on North American birds more...0 points
Carolina Wren, Carolina Wren Profile, Facts, Information, Photos, Pictures, Sounds, Habitats, Reports, News - National Geographic
Get Carolina wren profile, facts, information, pho more...0 points
Carolina Wren
A presentation of bird photographs, songs, identif more...0 points
Information on the Carolina Wren Habits
Description of Carolina Wren and its nesting and f more...0 points
Carolina Wren - Whatbird.com
Carolina Wren: Medium-sized wren with rufous upper more...0 points
South Carolina State Bird - Great Carolina Wren
Carolina Wren, Text by John James Audubon from Bir more...0 points
eNature: FieldGuides: Species Detail
eNature Field Guides -- Comprehensive guide to Ame more...0 points
Custom Precision Router Bits, Saw Blades, and Brazing Services.
Great discounts on thousands of tools, and Informa more...0 points
Links to More Info About Carolina Wrens
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