Winter Wren

In the tangled understory of eastern forests, a tiny ball of energy lets loose with a rich stream of bubbly notes. These songsters are the Winter Wren, shaking as they sing their astoundingly loud song. These birds sport a palette of browns with dark barring on the wings, tail, and belly. It habitually holds its tiny tail straight up and bounces up and down. These rather weak fliers hop and scamper among fallen logs mouse-like, inspecting upturned roots and vegetation for insects.

About Winter Wrens

Winter Wrens are little North American birds and individuals from the most New World Wren family Troglodytidae. It was once combined with Troglodytes pacificus of western North America and Troglodytes hermits of Eurasia under the name Winter Wren.

Winter Wrens are secretive little birds of dense woods. They often creep about among fallen logs and dense tangles, behaving more like a mouse than a bird, remaining out of sight but giving an occasional “kimp, kimp” call note. Usually, Winter Wrens live close to the ground, but in spring in the northern woods, males ascend to high perches in the conifers to give voice to a beautiful song of long-running musical trills.

Winter Wrens have round, short wings with strong distal feathers. These features are adaptations to living in dense vegetation. Round, short wings require less effort and room to suddenly take off or stop and they are easier to exercise within obstacles. Having heavier, stronger feathers at the ends of their wings protects them from breakage when they inevitably smack something in their crowded environment.

Winter Wrens seem especially amusing, aren’t they? Let’s learn a little more about them.

● Winter Wren Photos, Color Pattern, Song
● Winter Wren Size, Eating behavior, Habitat
● Winter Wren Range and Migration, Nesting

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Winter Wren Color Pattern

Winter Wrens appear brown overall but with a better look, you’ll see darker brown barring on the wings, tail, and belly. They have a pale tan eyebrow stripe above the eye and a plain brown cap. Their unmarked throats and barred bellies are a pale tan, paler than the rest of the part.

Description and Identification

The bird’s tail is often cocked above its back, and its short neck gives the appearance of a small brown ball. The tail is pretty small. Rufus brown above, grayer below, barred with darker brown and gray, even on wings and tail. The bill is dark brown, the legs pale brown. Young birds are less distinctly barred. Most are identifiable by the pale “eyebrows” over their eyes.

The sexes can be distinguished during the breeding season by the presence of either a brood patch (female) or a cloacal protuberance (male).

Winter Wren Size

Winter Wrens are plump round balls with a stubby tail that it usually holds straight up. The bill is small and thin, in keeping with its little appearance. Their length is between 8-12 cm and they weigh between 8-12 g. Their wingspan can be from 12-16 cm.

These birds have feathers that are in a white, brown and cream combination. Their legs are pink and brown in color and beaks are short, curved and thin with a black hue.

Winter Wren Song

Male Winter Wrens use songs to establish and maintain their territories. Their songs are variable and fast, using between 15 and 40 notes per second, and the entire song lasts 5 to 10 seconds. They are impressively loud. Winter Wrens use ten times as much power to deliver their songs as Roosters would if they weighed the same amount. Male Winter Wrens sing from elevated perches especially early in the season when they are establishing territories and while they are building the nest. Singing is most important just before and after dawn. This is the time when intruding males will attempt to steal territory. So, a defending male must be ready to meet his challenger with a song.

Female Winter Wrens listen to these contests and, if they like the intruder’s song, they may sneak off afterward and seek extra-pair copulations. Male Winter Wrens who have defended their territory recently sing more than males who have not. However, they sing less in cold weather, especially after cold nights. These birds also use other calls, which are only one or two notes. A high-pitched, varied, and rapid series of musical trills and chatters; call note an explosive “kit!” or “kit-kit!”

Winter Wren Behavior

Winter Wrens hop and scamper through the understory moving more like a mouse than a bird as they investigate upturned roots and decaying logs for food. These energetic birds often bob their entire bodies as if doing squats while they nervously look around in the forest understory. In-flight they rapidly beat their tiny wings to move short distances.

Winter Wrens fly short distances with rapid wing beats in the understory. They can also cling to tree trunks in a manner similar to a brown creeper. Winter Wrens intently search downed logs, root masses, and dense foliage on the ground or within low shrubs for insects. Once they find food they pick it from the foliage or jump up to grab it. Winter Wrens are energetic birds that often bob their bodies as if doing squats. During the breeding season, males sing with vigor from prominent perches in the understory. When the female Winter Wrens enter a male’s territory, he continues to sing, flutters his wings, and cocks his tail side to side. During courtship, the male leads the female around to each of several nests he has built in his territory. The female then chooses which nest to use.

Winter Wren’s usually forages very low among dense vegetation, searching for insects among foliage, on twigs and trunks, and on the ground. When feeding low along stream banks, they may take items from the water’s surface.

In winter, during bad weather, Winter Wren’s retreat to roosting sites. They may roost alone or in groups. Birds with good shelter and who roost in groups tend to survive winters better. Roosting groups can be quite large; one nest in the state of Washington contained 31 birds. They are also known for being very social.

Winter Wren Diet

Winter Wrens mostly eat insects. They feed on a wide variety of insects, including many beetles, caterpillars, true bugs, ants, small wasps, and many others. Winter Wrens also eat many spiders, plus some millipedes and snails. Occasionally may eat tiny fish, sometimes they also eat berries, perhaps mainly in fall and winter. Winter Wrens hop slowly on the ground or just above the ground inspecting crevices, decaying wood, upturned roots, and vegetation for food. They capture prey by picking it off surfaces or by probing in decaying bark.

Winter Wren Habitat

Winter Wrens use evergreen forests with spruce, fir, and hemlock as well as deciduous forests. They are more common in old-growth evergreen and deciduous forests than in younger forests stand. In winter, they move south or to lower elevations with milder temperatures. Here they use dense tangles, gardens, and brushy fields as well as deciduous forests to stay.

They breed mostly in a moist coniferous forest with an understory of dense thickets, often close to water. In winters they prefer very dense low growth in woods, especially along stream banks or among tangles, brush piles and fallen logs.

Winter Wrens live close to the ground, but in spring in the northern woods, males ascend to high perches in the conifers to give voice to a beautiful song of long-running musical trills.

Domestic cats, which are present anywhere humans exist, are major predators of native animals, including Winter Wrens. Winter wren’s nests are preyed on by many animals, including Crows, Jays, and weasels. Interestingly, Crows and Jays destroy empty nests in addition to ones containing eggs or nestlings.

Range and Migration

Winter Wrens breed in coniferous woodlands from British Columbia to the Atlantic Ocean. They relocate through and winters across southeastern Canada, the eastern a large portion of the United States, and north-eastern Mexico. Some of the Winter Wrens might be easygoing in the western United States and Canada.

They are found in the temperate northern hemisphere, including Europe, much of Asia, and North America. There are some gaps in this range, including a large part of Turkmenistan. Winter Wrens are most common in eastern and western North America and Eurasia.

Winter Wrens prefer deciduous forests, but they are also common in pastures, farms, scrub forests, coniferous forests, towns, and villages. They also occur on heath, grasslands, marshes, and croplands. Despite the name, they leave most northern areas in winter. Migration is relatively early in spring and late in fall.

Winter Wren territories vary in size depending on the situation. They range between 1 and 7 acres and average 2 to 3 acres in size. A Wren in Iceland was so isolated from other Wrens that he defended territory of 60 to 90 acres.

Winter Wren Lifecycle

Winter Wrens lay eggs 5-6 eggs, sometimes 4-7. White, with reddish-brown dots often concentrated toward larger end. Incubation is by females, about 14-16 days. Both the parents feed nestlings. Winter Wrens breed once yearly. Young leave the nest about 19 days after hatching.

Winter Wrens typically live only two years, but birds which survive longer than two years can still be reproductively active. Breeding males have been found up to 4 years old. The longest recorded lifespan in the wild was 6 years and 8 months. Their average lifespan in the wild is about 6.75 years.

Nesting

The breeding season for Winter Wrens is mid-March to mid-August. Males either return each year to their previous breeding territory or remain on-site year-round. Males in poor territories generally only keep one mate, but males in better areas can be polygamous.

Winter Wrens build domed-shaped globular nests or nests inside natural cavities. Males build several nests each season, often near streams in roots of upturned trees, under creek banks, in decaying logs, in hanging moss, or in dead trees. He shows each nest to the female, and she chooses which one to use.

These birds build several nests on their territories, which can be used for shelter or by a mate forming a nest. Males build up to twelve nests but average six. Nest size varies depending on the size of the cavity and placement of the nest. At times, nests can be the size of a football.

Anatomy of a Winter Wren

Winter Wrens are small dark brown birds, they have thin bills, and short tails generally cocked upward. It is dumpy, almost rounded, with a fine bill, quite long legs and toes, very short round wings, and a short, narrow tail which is sometimes cocked up vertically. They look like a plump round ball with a stubby tail that it usually holds up, brown
overall with baring on the belly tail and wings, they have a paler look at the bottom.

Final Thoughts

Winter Wrens are extraordinary birds that have an amazing sound. Winter Wrens are important members of the ecosystem because they eat insects and are food for larger predators. Because Winter Wrens are small, insectivorous birds, they are affected by cold weather more than many other bird species. Their population levels drop when temperatures are consistently too low. As a result, they are used as indicators of changing climate.

It is amazing that they help to control pest populations in areas of human habitation. In addition to these roles, they are parasitized by both invertebrates and vertebrates.

Ornithology

Bird Watching Academy & Camp Subscription Boxes

At the Bird Watching Academy & Camp we help kids, youth, and adults get excited and involved in bird watching. We have several monthly subscription boxes that you can subscribe to. Our monthly subscription boxes help kids, youth, and adults learn about birds, bird watching, and bird conservation.

Bird Watching Binoculars for Identifying Winter Wrens

The most common types of bird watching binoculars for viewing Winter Wrens are 8×21 binoculars and 10×42 binoculars. Bird Watching Academy & Camp sells really nice 8×21 binoculars and 10×42 binoculars. You can view and purchase them here.

Winter Wren Stickers

Stickers are a great way for you to display your love for bird watching and the Winter Wren. We sell a monthly subscription sticker pack. The sticker packs have 12 bird stickers. These sticker packs will help your kids learn new birds every month.

Bird Feeders For Winter Wrens

There are many types of bird feeders. Bird feeders are a great addition to your backyard. Bird feeders will increase the chances of attracting birds drastically. Both kids and adults will have a great time watching birds eat at these bird feeders. There are a wide variety of bird feeders on the market and it is important to find the best fit for you and your backyard.

Best Bird Houses For Winter Wrens

There are many types of bird houses. Building a bird house is always fun but can be frustrating. Getting a bird house for kids to watch birds grow is always fun. If you spend a little extra money on bird houses, it will be well worth every penny and they’ll look great.