We call him Wrenfield, our tiny troubadour. Wrenfield is a Carolina wren. We think he’s been around our house for several years. He wakes us each morning with a cheerful song and is one of the last birds to stop singing in the evening. He has quite a repertoire of songs and chirps. For a little fellow, he sure makes a lot of noise.
Wrenfield is always cheerful. He seems happy to just be alive and his songs reflect that outlook.
As far as I can tell, Wrenfield does not eat seeds of any description. He comes to the feeder on occasion and tosses out seeds, hoping to find an insect among the contents. He does enjoy a bite of suet now and again, but he loves to poke around in and under things. You never know where you’ll find a spider.
Next to singing, Wrenfield is a nest builder extraordinaire. If you leave any sort of container empty, he’ll build a nest, whether he uses it or not. Once we observed Wrenfield doing a little “unconstruction” work in a small birdhouse where a bluebird had previously nested. We watched as twigs and leaves were being removed from the hole in the birdhouse. Once finished, Wrenfield built his own nest. They say a male will build multiple nests (though sloppy) in order to attract a mate. If she decides to use that location, she completely undoes all his sloppy handiwork and rebuilds a suitable nest for herself and future chicks. Wrenfield doesn’t mind. He sings even louder and more cheerfully when he has a lady friend around.
Wrens are small birds, about the size of a fat chickadee. They are tannish brown and can easily be identified by their pert little tail, which generally points up. And their songs are magnificent.
We hope Wrenfield will build again and bring even more songs to our yard in the future.
