A Fine Flyer Filled

Written By: William McReynolds - Highlands Plateau Audubon Society | Issue: 2020/03 - March

The Carolina Wren, State Bird of South Carolina, produces some of the loudest, most distinct vocalizations in the forest. 

Its various calls and songs, intoning dozens of phrase patterns, have been described by Sibley as “a rolling chant of rich phrases pidaro pidaro pidaro or TWEE pudo TWEE pudo TWEEP and other variations.” Calls are “a harsh, complaining zhwee zhwee zhwee…; a descending, musical trill.” Expect loud variations. Some bird watchers mnemonically mimic its most common call as tea-kettle tea-kettle tea-kettle. 

This wren, given the formidable Latin name of Thryothorus ludovicianus, thrives in a range that reaches Maine and Canada to the north, Texas to the south and the eastern U.S. from the Atlantic coast to Iowa. With some regional variation, this small bird—sleek in the summer and often puffed up for warmth in the winter—sports rich reddish-brown plumage on its back and wings, an orange-buff belly and chest, a white throat and long supercilious white streak or eyebrow. The wren tail, long for its body size and decorated with dark bars, is usually held in an upright, cocked position, to be characteristically lowered while singing.

Wrens are among the best flyers in the woods, darting from branch to branch and tree trunk, using its loud call to establish its presence in its territory and scold intruders. Bushy thickets and other dense vegetation in the forest understory offer a perfect habitat for one who darts around finding beetles, bugs, grasshoppers, ants, spiders, bees, lizards and tree frogs. 

Male and female mate for life, which might be as long as ten years. Both build and tend the nest. When 3-6 eggs hatch after two weeks’ incubation, both male and female feed and tend the hatchlings until they fledge in another two weeks. The couple will raise two or three broods during a breeding season.

Wrens will come to bird feeders, both seed and suet, and provide many opportunities for observation and study or just simple enjoyment. They favor black oil sunflower seeds and most forms of suet including suet made at home inexpensively from peanut butter, cornmeal, flour and lard. 

Happy March birding from the Highlands Plateau Audubon Society. Our birds are relatively quiet during cold winter months, occupying mixed flocks and trying to survive instead of seeking mates. Offering them bird feeders helps sustain those who have lost habitats and food sources. 

The Highlands Plateau Audubon Society, focused on enjoying and preserving birds and their habitats, is a Chapter of the National Audubon Society and a 501(c)(3) organization. For information on all our activities and membership, please visit highlandsaudubonsociety.org .

by William McReynolds, 

Highlands Plateau Audubon Society