FEATHERED ENERGY

     Four eastern members of America's wren family, Carolina, house, winter and marsh, are feisty, energetic, adaptable, interesting and entertaining.  Descended from a common ancestor, they all have traits in common.  They are all shaped the same, sport short, upright tails, are seldom still and have brown feathering with darker markings that camouflage them.  They all dine on small invertebrates year around, and males of each kind sing boisterous songs.  And they all inhabit the Middle Atlantic States at some time of each year.    

     However, each wren species traditionally inhabits a niche different than that of its relatives.  Carolina and house wrens nest in bottomland woods.  Carolinas raise young in nurseries among log, brush and rock piles while house wrens hatch offspring in abandoned tree cavities.  Today Carolinas also hatch babies in garages, under decks and porches, in outdoor grills and other odd, but sheltering places.  House wrens also raise young in bird boxes erected especially for them. 

     Winter wrens nest in mixed deciduous/coniferous forests of Canada and down the Appalachian Mountains.  They only winter in the wooded bottomlands of the Middle Atlantic States.  And marsh wrens raise families in scattered cattail marshes in those same states.    

     Carolina wrens are permanent residents, wherever they hatch, and are good neighbors to have in suburban areas.  They are the largest of eastern wrens, and quite attractive.  In winter, they forage for invertebrates under fallen logs and brush piles, and along running seepages in thickets, places where snow does not pile up.  And some Carolinas go to bird feeders in winter.  Through the year, male Carolina wrens sing loud, ringing songs that might sound like "tea-kettle, tea-kettle ......".  

     The common house wrens nest in the Middle Atlantic States.  They arrive here around the end of April and males repeatedly sing loud, bubbling songs to establish nesting territories and attract mates.  Little scamps, some house wrens break the eggs of other birds nesting in boxes to discourage those birds so the wrens can use those bird nesting houses for themselves.

     Smallest of the eastern wrens, winter wrens winter along brooks and streams in bottomland woods.  There they forage for invertebrates, like creeping, feathered mice, along the shores of running water that doesn't freeze.  They are sort of like a wintering, woodland shore bird.  At dusk, they escape the cold by creeping into a crevice in a streambank behind the roots of a tree.  There they stay all night.  We don't often see this tiny, dark wren until it flits quickly across its small waterway in the woods.

     Marsh wrens summer in marshes where males sing loud, rattling songs and build a few, round cradles of grass, with an entrance in one side, among grass, reed or cattail stems.  The mate of each male picks one nursery to lay her eggs in.  Unfortunately, like house wrens, this species is a destroyer of other birds' eggs, too.           

     Use an eastern North America bird field guide, or a computer, to see the subtle beauties of these eastern wrens.  And they are interesting and entertaining as well.  They are well worth knowing in one's own neighborhood.