How to Identify the House Wren when Backyard Bird Watching

Video Transcript

"Hello, welcome to Expert Village. My name is Wayne Petersen, director of the Massachusetts Audubon Society Important Bird Areas Program and we’re here this afternoon at the Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary in Marshville, Massachusetts. Next we’re going to talk about backyard birding, a place where everybody has an opportunity to get involved and where many peoples interest in birding first begins. The house wren is another common suburban bird that actually would use nest boxes, obviously being a much smaller bird than a bluebird the whole size needs to be smaller and this is in fact true for all the birds that nest in cavities. They do have sort of preferred recommended whole sizes and also the height of which above the ground the cavity box is placed and so forth, this is all something to keep in mind. A house wren is a little brown job as it were but it has a wonderfully bubbly song and the male house wren is very aggressive in terms of its defense of territory and in fact if there are multiple cavities or nest boxes put up for them, male house wrens will often fill multiple boxes with sticks and twigs and then will go around and sing in front of each one. Ultimately the female house wren would pick one and that’s the one where the eggs would go but the male will continue to display in front of all the other boxes so that visiting house wrens, intruding house wrens would get the impression that these various other nest chambers are already occupied. The downside of the house wren is that they can be quiet aggressive in their territory defense and in their effort to acquire a box, so that if there is something like a bluebird or a tree swallow nesting in a bird box, sometimes house wrens will go in and will actually puncture the eggs or in the worse scenario actually kill the young of the swallows or bluebirds. But in general they are desirable birds to have around with their bubbly song and the fact that they do provide some activity in the backyard if you have the appropriate boxes put up for them."