There are, I come to find out, 88 species of wren. That’s certainly enough to defy simple categorical descriptions, and in this they do not disappoint. Consider these facts:
- All 88 species are found in the New World, except for the one that isn’t: the Eurasian wren.
- In the New World, they live in almost every habitat: forests, deserts, and grasslands.
- They mostly eat bugs, spiders, and other small invertebrates, but they’ll also eat seeds, berries, and occasionally small amphibians like frogs or tadpoles.
- They can be quite bold or very secretive in nature.
- While most wrens are non-migratory, some that live in temperate zones do migrate, but not all.
- The Eurasian wren hangs out around people, but other wrens are solitary.
So, to summarize, wrens live here and there, eat this and that and that, are in-your-face unless they’re hiding behind your back, stay put through the seasons unless they don’t, and are extroverted unless they’re introverted. And, oh yes, some non-wren species have been mistakenly identified (and named, of course) as wrens.
All right then. How hard could it be to identify a wren?
Well, with a photo – even a slightly blurry one – it wasn’t hard at all for Merlin to identify a bird I saw on a walk as a cactus wren.
One of the other facts about wrens is that they have drab plumage. Well, OK, the colours aren’t exactly bright but the throwaway line about them having “barred patterns on their wings or tails” seems to under-sell this little guy’s plumage.
As he circled the tree trunk, heading ever upwards, he wasn’t the ideal photographic subject. A brief sojourn in the sun and without movement was all I asked for. It was not what I got. I hear from other bird watchers/photographers that this inability to stay still is, perhaps, the one truly universal truth about wrens.
