We have tenants in our wren house.
Here’s a picture of the male wren. There is a female too, but she gets very shy when there are people around. Last week they were both taking small twigs from the cedar tree and adding them to the twigs already in the wren house.
House Wrens (Troglodytes aedon) like these two will often make a “false nest” or two, but it is usually just the male. He’s covering his bets but also trying to shake off any cowbirds or competitor species. The fact that they were both adding to the nest box seems a good omen, but you never know with wrens.
Here’s a less-than-perfect video of the male singing above the house. This is territorial behavior, but it’s wonderful to hear. Turn your volume to medium or so; there’s a big boom noise at the end, it isn’t a gun shot but a delivery man in our neighbor’s driveway.
Anyway, I’ll keep you posted on their progress. The chances of fireworks are great…the house is a Carolina Wren house (Thryothorus ludovicianus) and they are bigger and often more assertive than their House Wren cousins. House Wrens, however, are no pushovers.
Check out the links to the two different wren species to the right in my “places to go” tab. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology always has cool bird information and great photos.
