House Wren

Troglodytes aedon
STANFORD LOCATIONS:

Uncommon migrant and summer resident in wooded areas near the Dish, nesting in natural cavities, old woodpecker holes, and nest boxes. Uncommon to fairly rare migrant elsewhere on campus.
  
Nest
Location
Nest
Type
Eggs
Mating System
Dev.
Parental Care
Primary &
2ndary Diet
Foraging
Strategy
FM?
I: 13 DAYS
ALTRICIAL
SNAG
 0 - 20 feet +
MF
6-8 (5-12)
MONOG
(POLYGYN)
F: 12-18 DAYS
?
INVERTS
FOLIAGE GLEAN
BREEDING: Open woodland (esp in w), shrubland, farmland, suburbs. 2, rarely 3 broods.
DISPLAYS: Courtship: male sings while quivering wings, tail raised; female quivers wings. Often male has already started nests, and dual nest inspection follows.
NEST: Usu in natural hole, occ in nests of other birds, variety of other cavities. Of twigs, grass, lined with fine materials.
EGGS: White, marked with browns, occ wreathed. 0.6" (16 mm).
align="right"DIET: Includes millipedes, spiders, snails.
CONSERVATION: Winters s throughout Mexico. Rare cowbird host. Readily uses nest boxes.
NOTES: Male often builds crude "dummy" nests. Males exhibit strong fidelity to breeding territory. Both male and female often destroy eggs of other House Wrens and of other species nesting nearby; this behavior is inhibited while birds are tending their own eggs. Carolina Wrens, House Sparrows, and European Starlings compete for nest holes.
ESSAYS: Incubation: Heating Eggs; Polygyny; Eggs and Their Evolution; DDT and Birds; Site Tenacity.
REFERENCES: Belles-Isles and Picman, 1986.

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Except for Stanford Locations, the material in this species treatment is taken, with permission, from The Birder's Handbook (Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, & Darryl Wheye, Simon & Schuster, NY. 1988).