Bewick’s Wren
Thryomanes bewickii
eBird gives this description for the Bewick’s Wren: Long-tailed, rather slender wren. Dark brown above and pale grayish below with whitish eyebrow. Slender bill is slightly decurved. Favors dry scrubby areas, thickets in open country, and open woodlands near rivers and streams. Also at home in gardens, residential areas, and parks in cities and suburbs. Song is variable, but usually includes high-pitched buzzes and musical trills. All About Birds as this descriptive information about the Bewick’s Wren: If you come across a noisy, hyperactive little bird with bold white eyebrows, flicking its long tail as it hops from branch to branch, you may have spotted a Bewick’s Wren. These master vocalists belt out a string of short whistles, warbles, burrs, and trills to attract mates and defend their territory, or scold visitors with raspy calls. Bewick’s Wrens are still fairly common in much of western North America, but they have virtually disappeared from the East.
I saw my first Bewick’s Wren on the early afternoon of January 6, 2021 at Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco, Texas. I was sitting on my stool near the Park Host’s feeder when I spotted this little bird. He didn’t stay still very long, and didn’t stick around the area more than a few minutes, but I got a pretty good look at him and could clearly see the bold white eyebrows the bird is known for. For details of the trip that includes my visit with the Bewick’s Wren, look here. Below are some of the photos I took that day.
“Cool Facts” About the Bewick’s Wren From All About Birds:
- The severe declines of Bewick’s Wren in the eastern United States coincided with range expansion in the House Wren. It is suspected that the House Wren, which frequently removes eggs from nests in cavities, was directly responsible for the decline. The increased availability of nest boxes may have helped the spread of the House Wren, and therefore the decline of the Bewick’s Wren.
- This species is named after British engraver Thomas Bewick—a friend of pioneering bird artist John James Audubon, who collected the first recognized specimen. After collecting a bird in 1821 in Louisiana, Audubon saw another and wrote, “I refrained from killing it, in order to observe its habits.… It moved along the bars of the fences, with its tail generally erect, looking from the bar on which it stood towards the one next above, and caught spiders and other insects, as it ran along from one panel of the fence to another in quick succession.”
- Courting Bewick’s Wrens normally form monogamous pairs. While they’re setting up house and even after the female has begun incubating eggs, the male and female often forage together. This may help the male prevent his partner from mating with another bird.
- 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, a syllable there. The melodious signature he acquires between the ages of about 30 and 60 days will be his for life.
- A Bewick’s Wren’s life starts off perilously. House Wrens may eject eggs from its nest; both eggs and nestlings can become lunch for rat snakes and milk snakes, and domestic cats go after nestlings. Adulthood isn’t safe either: mature birds can fall prey to roadrunners, rattlesnakes, or hawks.
- At the sound of approaching humans, a female Bewick’s Wren incubating eggs usually flushes quietly from her nest cavity, but remains nearby and scolds. Some females, however, sit tightly on their eggs even when disturbed.
- In his 1889 Ornithology of Illinois, Robert Ridgway attested that “No bird more deserves the protection of man than Bewick’s Wren. He does not need man’s encouragement, for he comes of his own accord and installs himself as a member of the community, wherever it suits his taste. He is found about the cowshed and barn along with the Pewee and Barn Swallow; he investigates the pig-sty; then explores the garden fence, and finally mounts to the roof and pours forth one of the sweetest songs that ever was heard.”
- The oldest recorded Bewick’s Wren was at least 8 years old when it was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in California in 1986. It had been banded in the same state in 1978.