Wrens of the Southwest: A Boisterous Clan

Summary: Wrens are some of the most charismatic families of songbirds! Join Cheryl and Kiersten as they introduce you to some found in the Southwest.

 

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

 

Show Notes:

www.allaboutbirds.org

“Western Chatterboxes” by Ken Keffer, Birds and Blooms Magazine pg 26-32.

Background bird song:  Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

 

Our email address, please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions:  thefeathereddesert@gmail.com

 

Cheryl: Intro

Wrens are small birds but what they do not have in size they make up for in personality, chatter, and curiosity.  Our Sonoran Desert has several wrens flit through our desert and urban landscapes.

Kiersten:  Cactus Wren

         The Cactus wren is a large, chunky wren with a long heavy bill, a long rounded tail, and short, rounded wings.  The Cactus wren is the largest wren in the U.S. It also has the distinction of being the state bird of Arizona. 

         This wren is a speckled brown bird with bright white eyebrows that extend from the bill across and above their red eyes to the sides of the neck.  They have pale cinnamon sides and a white chest with dark speckles.  The back is brown with heavy white streaks, and the tail is barred white and black.  Males and females look alike. 

         Unlike other wrens that typically hide in vegetation, the cactus wren seems to have no fear.  They perch a top cacti and other shrubs to announce their presence and forage out in the open.  These birds do not cock their tails over their back the way other wrens do.  Instead, Cactus wrens fan their tail feathers, flashing white tail tips.

         Cactus wrens, as we have mentioned in previous podcasts, make more than one nest a year, its spherical, with males and females occupying different nests through out the year.  Cactus Wren is an insect eater.  When feeding its nestlings it will pull the wings of the grasshopper before it feeds it to its baby.  That’s a lot of wings because one Cactus Wren nestling eats 14 grasshoppers a day.

         Cactus Wrens live in desert, arid foothills, coastal sage scrub and urban areas of the southwest.  They especially love areas with thorny shrubs like the Cholla and Prickly pear.

Cheryl: Rock Wren

         Medium-sized wren with a long tail and thin bill.  Pale brown above and whitish below with slight buffy or peachy wash on the lower belly. Back and wings are finely speckled.  Underpants are finely streaked, but often look whitish. 

         The small industrious Rock Wren constantly hops around rocks, investigating crannies for insects and spiders, which they extract with their delicate bill.  This resourceful species thrives even in bleak desert settings occupied by few other birds.  The rock wren is not known to drink water but instead gets all it needs from its food.

         Male Rock wren is a truly remarkable singer and can have a large song repertoire of 100 or more songs, many it has learned from its neighbors.

         Rock Wrens are on of the few bird species that uses landscapes significantly altered by industry or tother human activity.  Nesting is road cuts, railroad tunnels, gravel pits, clearcuts, coalmine spoils, and refuse heaps.

Kiersten: Canyon Wren

         A tiny bird with a big voice, the Canyon Wren, sings a gorgeous series of sweet, cascading whistles that echo off the rocky walls of its canyon habitat.  Canyon Wrens are incredibly agile birds that hunt for insects mostly among rocks, scaling cliff faces and using their long slender bills to probe into crevices with surgical precision.

         They are a warm cinnamon -brown with a salt and pepper pattern on their head, and neat white throat patch.  The vertebral column of the Canyon Wren is attached higher on the skull than it is on most birds.  This modification, along with a slightly flattened skull, allows a Canyon Wren to probe for food in tight crevices without bumping its head.  Canyon Wrens sometimes steal insects trapped in spiderwebs or stowed in wasp nests.

Cheryl: Bewick’s Wren-pronounced Bu-ick’s

         The Bewick’s Wren is a medium-size brown wren with a long tail that is often held up.  The bill is long and slightly curved.  Note the white eyebrows and dark barring on the tail.  These are boisterous and curious birds.  Their plumage varies regionally from rusty-brown in humid areas to grayish- brown in drier regions.

         Bewick’s Wrens are noisy, hyperactive little birds.  They are master vocalists that belt out a string of short whistles, warblers, burrs, and trills to attract mates and defend their territory, or scold visitors with raspy calls.   A young male Bewick’s wren learns to sing from neighboring adult males while he is coming of age in his parents territory.  The songs he develops differ from his father’s, with a note changed here or a syllable there.  The melodious signature he acquires between the ages of about 30 and 60 days will be his for life.

These wrens are common in much of the western North America.  Bewick’s wrens eat insects, but will eat fruits, seeds and other plant matter especially in winter.  Bewick’s wrens build their nests in cavities or on ledges about 30 ft off the ground.

Kiersten:  House Wrens

         The house wren is a small, nondescript brown bird with a short tail, thin bill and dark barring on wings and tail with a paler throat.  House wrens have a effervescent voice and is a common visitor to backyards.  Spending its time zipping through shrubs and low tree branches snatching at insects.   Because they are cavity nesters, house wrens thrive around buildings, yards, farms, and other human habitations with their many nooks and crannies.

         House wrens eat a variety of insects and spiders, including beetles, caterpillars, earwigs and daddy long legs, also small snails for the grit to aid in digestion and calcium. 

         The house wren has on of the largest ranges of any song bird in  North or South America because it breeds from Canada through the west indies and Central America, southward to the southern most point of South America.  Generally, Bewick’s wrens and House wrens will not nest in the same areas.  So you can imagine the pressure the Bewick’s wren is under with the success of the House wren.

Cheryl: Closing

These amazing small birds are full of personality and big voices so it is a joy to spend time with them here in the Phoenix Valley where it is  home to a variety of these wrens.