The House Wren (Troglodytes aedon) is a bustling bundle of nervous energy showing up in Spring in garden trees and roadside shrubs throughout southern Canada and most of the United States.
The male arrives at his breeding ground to stake a claim before the females arrive. He looks for a low, wooded tract, preferably deciduous, at the far edge of a yard. When he finds it, he proclaims his rights. The male is a habitual nest starter. He stuffs any likely nesting cavity with twigs, grass and other materials, perhaps marking his territory or as an inducement to the female House Wrens when they arrive.
Male House Wrens are from Venus; female House Wrens are from Mars. Somehow the nest building gets done anyway.
As soon as the female appear, the male wren’s song draws her attention. He courts ardently, wings quivering, tail flicking straight up. If the female is receptive, he escorts her around his prospective nest sites. The female almost always disapproves of her mate’s home-building efforts.
So after she selects one of his sites she usually removes all the materials and starts the nest over again. The female collects strange items for the nest such as hairpins, nails, tacks, staples, safety pins, paper clips and hooks.
Controversies rage during the rejection and rebuilding of house wren nests. Pairs of house wrens often fight fiercely, but somehow the job gets done. The female lines the nest to suit her; while the male stands guard and sometimes starts another nest which may be used later for a second brood. He also may take up with a second female, for just as his mate is a shrew, he is a philanderer.
In the wild, house wrens nest in natural hollows or old woodpecker holes. Near human habitats, the birds make full use of whatever civilization may provide, including a weathervane or old farm machinery. They have also been known to set up housekeeping in a tin can in a garbage dump, a mailbox and a basket. House wrens also welcome boxes and birdhouses that people put out for them. To bar the house sparrows, wren houses should have an entrance hole no more than 1″ across. A slit that’s 1″ x 3″ provides an even better door, for it permits wrens to carry in twigs held crosswise in their bills.
House wrens often leave sticks jutting out from their entrances to help bar larger birds. Their six to eight eggs, finely sprinkled with reddish-brown dots, hatch in just 13 days. House wrens have a strong feeding instinct and are tireless parents. They work from early morning to late night, feeding their young and even feeding the young of other species, even a nestful of house sparrows which are the house wren’s worst enemies. Young house wrens leave the nest about two weeks after hatching.
As fall approaches, the birds grow shy and desert their homestead to find seclusion in the woods. Soon after that, they migrate.
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