Northern house wren

The northern house wren (Troglodytes aedon) is a very small passerine in the wren family Troglodytidae. It is found in southern Canada, the USA and Mexico. It occurs in most suburban areas in its range. It formerly included many subspecies resident in South America and in the Caribbean that are now considered as separate species. The name troglodytes means "hole dweller", and is a reference to the bird's tendency to disappear into crevices when hunting insects or to seek shelter.

Taxonomy

The northern house wren was formally described in 1809 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot under the current binomial name Troglodytes aedon. The specific epithet is from the Ancient Greek aēdōn meaning "nightingale". The type locality was designated as New York City by Harry Oberholser in 1934. An earlier specific name, domestica in the combination Sylvia domestica, was introduced in 1808 by the American ornithologist Alexander Wilson. This was rarely used and in 1998 to conserve the widely used name aedon, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature suppressed the specific name domestica for the purposes of the principle of priority.

Four subspecies are recognised:

T. a. parkmanii Audubon, 1839 – southwest, central south Canada and west, central USA to north Mexico (north Baja California)
T. a. aedon Vieillot, 1809 – southeast Canada and east USA
T. a. cahooni Brewster, 1888 – southeast Arizona (southwest USA) to central Mexico (Nayarit and Zacatecas)
T. a. brunneicollis Sclater, PL, 1858 – central, south Mexico (Jalisco to Coahuila, central Nuevo León)

The following species were formerly considered as subspecies in the house wren complex. The species were split based on the deep genomic divergence and differences in vocalizations and morphology. Among standard measurements, the wing chord is , the tail is , the culmen is and the tarsus is . The subspecies vary greatly, with upper parts ranging from dull greyish-brown to rich rufescent-brown, and the underparts ranging from brown, over buff and pale grey, to pure white. All subspecies have blackish barring to the wings and tail, and some also to the flanks. All subspecies show a faint eye-ring and eyebrow and have a long, thin bill with a blackish upper mandible, and a black-tipped yellowish or pale grey lower mandible. The legs are pinkish or grey. The short tail is typically held cocked.

This bird's rich bubbly song is commonly heard during the nesting season but rarely afterwards. There is marked variation in the song.

Troglodytes aedon NPS.jpg|T. a. parkmanii, Bandelier National Monument (New Mexico, USA)

Troglodytes-aedon-001.ogg|Northern house wren song recorded in Rondeau Provincial Park (Ontario, Canada)

House wren in full song cropped.png|Northern house wren<br/>San Luis Obispo (California, USA)

Troglodytes aedon - House Wren - XC59832.ogg|Northern house wren recorded at Richardson Nature Center, Bloomington, Minnesota

20230823 house wren south meadows PND00321.jpg|Individual with missing tail feathers, (East Hartford, Connecticut, USA)

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Behavior and ecology

The northern house wren is thought to achieve the highest density in floodplain forests in the western great plains where it uses woodpecker holes as nesting sites. The birds migrate to the southern United States and Mexico for winter. Most return to the breeding grounds in late April to May, and leave for winter quarters again around September to early October. also spiders and snails. Southern house wrens rarely attend mixed-species feeding flocks. but occasionally on cliffs as high up as and more at least in southern populations; they may be natural or man-made, often using bird houses.

Northern house wrens are feisty and pugnacious animals considering their tiny size. They are known to occasionally destroy the eggs of other birds nesting in their territory by puncturing the eggshell. Females that sang more songs to conspecifics that were simulated by playback lost fewer eggs to ovicide by other wrens. Female bird song in this species is, therefore, thought to have a function in competition and is not only displayed by males. They are also known to fill up other birds' nests within its territory with sticks to make them unusable.

thumb|right|House wren removing the contents of a [[tree swallow nest from a nest box (Tree swallow not shown).]]

thumb|right|Adult bringing food for young (note begging calls)

alt=House Wren (Troglodytes aedon) peering out from a nest box|thumb|House Wren peering out from a nesting box

Depending on the exact population, the northern house wrens' clutch is usually between two and eight red-blotched cream-white eggs,. They are fed by both parents, and need plenty of food given their tiny size (see also Bergmann's Rule). As the young near fledging, the parents spend much of their time procuring food for them. Known predators of northern house wrens at the nest include cats, rats, opossums, woodpeckers, foxes, raccoons, squirrels, snakes and owls. Adults away from the nests can usually avoid these predators although both small hawks and owls occasionally take free-flying adult wrens.

Migrant populations are nesting within six weeks of returning from winter quarters, leaving theoretically time for a second brood.

Cited texts

External links

House Wren by John James Audubon (1821) – Hi-definition close-up images from Birds of America.
House Wren Parenting – Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center
House Wren – Birds of Washington State
House Wren – Troglodytes aedon – USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
House Wren Species Account – Cornell Lab of Ornithology
House Wren – Video at YouTube
Videos from inside a house wren nest – Video clips showing development from eggs to fledglings (Faunascope)
at bird-stamps.org
House Wren Bird Sound at Florida Museum of Natural History