Bird of the Week!

Bird of The Week: Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus)

🐦 Appearance

Both males and females have a rich cinnamon brown with buffy underparts, a white throat, and a white eyebrow. Often holds the tail cocked upward. The bill is long and curved.

🎶 Song & Call

Usually heard before even seeing, the male Carolina Wren has a loud ringing song that is three-parted repeated teakettle or germany. Each male has a repertoire of up to several dozen different song variations. He'll sing one of these about 15 times before changing his tune.
The male and female sing different parts and usually interweave their songs such that they sound like a single bird singing. Carolina Wrens have a large repertoire of calls, including loud repeated rasping, chattering, and a rising and falling cheer.

🏡 Habitat & Behavior

Carolina Wrens frequent vegetated habitats such as brushy thickets, lowland cypress swamps, bottomland woods, and ravines choked with hemlock and rhododendron. They gravitate toward shrubby, wooded residential areas, overgrown farmland, dilapidated buildings, and brushy suburban yards.

Carolina Wrens usually go about their business alone or in pairs; after nestlings have fledged, you may see family groups feeding together. Feeding on or near the ground, the wrens run, hop, and flit around leaf litter and tangled vegetation; they dodge in and out of dark spaces created by downed trees, decaying logs, old stumps, and upturned roots. They climb up vines, trunks, and branches, poking into squirrel nests and probing nooks and crannies in search of insects. Carolina Wrens use their curved bills to turn over decaying vegetation and to hammer and shake apart large bugs. A weak flyer, this wren makes brief, quick aerial forays over short distances.

🐣 Nesting

Carolina Wrens nest in open cavities 3–6 feet off the ground, in trees, overhangs and stumps. The first nest is sometimes built on vegetation-shaded ground. Near homes, they're versatile nesters, making use of discarded flowerpots, mailboxes, propane-tank covers, and a variety of other items. Their nests have even been found in old coat pockets and boots. Males often build multiple nests before the pair makes a final selection.

Male and female Carolina Wrens build their nests together. One member of the pair may stay at the site while the other gathers material. The first nest can take a week or more to build, but later ones take shape in as few as 4 days. The bulky nest is cup-shaped, usually domed, with a side entrance and often a woven extension like a porch or entrance ramp.

🌎 Conservation Status

Carolina Wrens are common across their range and their populations increased between 1966 and 2019, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Partners in Flight estimates a global breeding population of 19 million and rates them 7 out of 20 on the Continental Concern Score, indicating a species of low conservation concern.

These birds thrive over much of the eastern United States. Icy, snowy winters can abruptly reduce local populations, but they soon recover. In fact, with rising average winter temperatures over the past century or so, the Carolina Wren has been pushing northward. The species has probably benefited from forest fragmentation in some areas and from reforestation in others—both processes create the tangled, shrubby habitat these birds use.