30 | OHCC LIVING | SEPTEMBER 2021 |
Birdwatchers
House wrens and Bewick's wrens are common around our
houses. You may hear them in the early morning singing or scolding.
Bewick's wrens measure 5.25 inches long and are common in the
southwestern and pacific states. They like dense brush, hedgerows,
and small trees. Both wrens have a long beak slightly downturned.
Bewick's have a light grey breast and their distinguishing feature is a
long white eyebrow absent on house wrens.
The house wren is 4.75 inches long and lives in similar habitat
found throughout north America and are darker in coloration. Both
wrens have the characteristic barring on the tail, a characteristic of
wrens, that makes them easy to distinguish from other small birds.
The decline of Bewick's wrens in the eastern states coincided
with the strange expansion of the house wren. House wrens' nest
in cavities, natural or manmade, and frequently remove eggs from
the nests of other birds including eggs of Bewick's wrens. Setting up
nest boxes resulted in the spread of the house wren and decline of
the Bewick's wren. Some of bluebird boxes on our golf course have
been taken over by house wrens limiting our bluebird fledglings.
