Canebrake Wren

Cantorchilus zeledoni

eBird describes the Canebrake Wren like this:  Small, skulking wren of foothills and lowlands along the Caribbean slope from Nicaragua south to western Panama. Found in forest edges, second-growth thickets, and brushy fields with cane grass. Heard more often than seen: song relatively short with bright phrases usually repeated a few times in quick succession. Note the bold white eyebrow, whitish breast, rich buffy flanks, and bright rusty tail barred black. Formerly known as Plain Wren.

The website Birds of the World gives provides this basic information about this bird:  Canebrake Wren formerly was known as “Plain Wren”, and included with two taxa that now are recognized as separate species, Cabanis’s Wren (Cantorchilus modestus) and Isthmian Wren (Cantorchilus elutus). “Plain Wren” indeed was a good name of this species, as it possesses rather few obviously distinguishing field marks. This overall similarity is one reason why Cabanis’s, Canebrake, and Isthmian wrens were considered conspecific until phylogenetic analyses revealed that each was more distantly related to each other than previously was thought; this genetic divergence also is complemented by differences in their songs. Canebrake Wren has a rather restricted distribution, as it is confined to the Caribbean slope, from Nicaragua south to western Panama.

I saw my first Canebrake Wren during my birding trip to Costa Rica in early 2023.   Early on the morning of Monday, February 6, 2023, our tour group walked a muddy road near our cabins at La Selva before breakfast.  We spotted this bird in some bushes near the road and the morning light had improved enough that I was able to get a fairly decent photograph. 

CANEBRAKE WREN AT LA SELVA. FORTUNATELY THE LIGHT WAS GETTING A LITTLE BETTER WHEN I TOOK THIS EARLY MORNING PHOTO.