Wrens- ORDER: Passeriformes
- FAMILY: Troglodytidae
Basic Description
A plain brown bird with an effervescent voice, the Northern House Wren is a common backyard bird across most of the U.S. and southern Canada. Listen for its rush-and-jumble song in summer and you’ll find this species zipping through shrubs and low tree branches, snatching at insects. Northern House Wrens will gladly use nestboxes, or you may find their twig-filled nests in old cans, boots, or boxes lying around in your garage.
More ID InfoFind This Bird
As with many birds, your ears can help lead you to Northern House Wren sightings. Start in the right habitat: backyards, parks, or open woods, then listen. The song can be hard to learn at first, because the notes are nondescript and variable, and because there’s simply so much of it—so loud and insistent—that it’s hard to believe such a small bird is making it.
Other Names
- Chochín Criollo Norteño (Spanish)
- Troglodyte familier (French)
Backyard Tips
Wrens love brush piles for cover, protection, and a source of insects. If you need to prune trees or cut brush in your yard, consider heaping the cuttings into a pile as a safe place for birds to gather. More tips for attracting birds
Consider putting up a nest box to attract a breeding pair. Make sure you put it up well before breeding season. Attach a guard to keep predators from raiding eggs and young. Find out more about nest boxes on All About Birdhouses, where you'll find plans for building a nest box of the appropriate size for Northern House Wren.
Bird-friendly Winter Gardens, Birdsleuth, 2016.
- Cool Facts
- In 2024, ornithologists split the House Wren, which ranged from Canada to the southern tip of South America, into two widespread species—Northern House Wren and Southern House Wren—and five Caribbean endemic species: Cozumel, Kalinago, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Grenada Wrens.
- Northern House Wrens nest inside tree holes and nest boxes. As the season progresses their nests can become infested with mites and other parasites that feed on the wren nestlings. Perhaps to fight this problem, wrens often add spider egg sacs into the materials they build their nests from. In lab studies, once the spiders hatched, they helped the wrens by devouring the nest parasites.
- A Northern House Wren weighs about as much as two quarters, but it’s a fierce competitor for nest holes. Wrens will harass and peck at much larger birds, sometimes dragging eggs and young out of a nest site they want—even occasionally killing adult birds. In some areas they are the main source of nest failure for bluebirds, Tree Swallows, Prothonotary Warblers, and chickadees.
- For Northern House Wren eggs, temperature inside the nest box can be critical to survival. If a sun-drenched nest box warms above about 106 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour, the eggs will begin to die. If a cold snap chills a nest below about 65 degrees Fahrenheit for more than a day it can also doom the eggs.
- Male Northern House Wrens returning north to breed in their first year are more likely to settle close to an established male than farther from it. Experienced males tend to settle farther apart. Young males may take clues from more experienced males about what areas are good nesting sites.
- The oldest recorded Northern House Wren was at least 9 years old, when it was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in New York in 1993, the same state where it had been banded.