Winter wren

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Winter wren
In Prospect Park, New York.
Song recorded in Tahquamenon Falls State Park, Michigan

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Troglodytidae
Genus: Troglodytes
Species:
T. hiemalis
Binomial name
Troglodytes hiemalis
Vieillot, 1819
  Breeding
  Migration
  Year-round
  Nonbreeding
Synonyms

Olbiorchilus hiemalis
Nannus hiemalis

The winter wren (Troglodytes hiemalis) is a very small

Troglodytidae. The species contained the congeneric Pacific wren (Troglodytes pacificus) of western North America and Eurasian wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) of Eurasia until they were split in 2010.[2]

It breeds in

coniferous forests from British Columbia to the Atlantic Ocean. It migrates through and winters across southeastern Canada, the eastern half the United States and (rarely) north-eastern Mexico
. Small numbers may be casual in the western United States and Canada.

The scientific name for its genus is taken from the Greek word troglodytes (from "trogle" a hole, and "dyein" to creep), meaning "cave-dweller", and may refer to their tendency to nest in cavities or their foraging behavior, in which the winter wren almost exclusively ground-gleans in thick underbrush.[3][4][5]

Taxonomy

The winter wren was described and illustrated in 1808 by the American ornithologist

type locality was restricted to Nova Scotia by Harry C. Oberholser in 1902.[9][10]

The winter wren was formerly considered to be

common ancestor approximately 4.3 million years ago, long before the glacial cycles of the Pleistocene, which are thought to have promoted speciation in many avian systems inhabiting the boreal forest of North America.[13][14]

Two subspecies are recognised:[11]

  • T. h. hiemalis Vieillot, 1819 – breeds in east Canada and northeast USA, winters in southeast USA
  • T. h. pullus (Burleigh, 1935) – breeds in mountains of West Virginia to Georgia (east-central USA), winters in south USA

Description

Small tail is often cocked above its back, and short neck gives the appearance of a small brown ball. Rufous brown above, grayer below, barred with darker brown and gray, even on wings and tail. The bill is dark brown, the legs pale brown. Young birds are less distinctly barred. Most are identifiable by the pale "eyebrows" over their eyes.

Measurements:[15]

  • Length: 3.1–4.7 in (7.9–11.9 cm)
  • Weight: 0.3–0.4 oz (8.5–11.3 g)
  • Wingspan: 4.7–6.3 in (12–16 cm)

Distribution and habitat

The winter wren nests mostly in coniferous forests, especially those of spruce and fir, where it is often identified by its long and exuberant song. Although it is an insectivore, it can remain in moderately cold and even snowy climates by foraging for insects on substrates such as bark and fallen logs.

Its movements as it creeps or climbs are incessant rather than rapid; its short flights swift and direct but not sustained, its tiny round wings whirring as it flies from bush to bush.

At night, usually in winter, it often roosts, true to its scientific name, in dark retreats, snug holes and even old nests. In hard weather it may do so in parties, either consisting of the family or of many individuals gathered together for warmth.

Behavior and ecology

Clinging to a spruce tree during fall migration in New York.

Breeding

The male builds a small number of nests. These are called "cock nests" but are never lined until the female chooses one to use. The normal round nest of

grass, moss, lichens or leaves is tucked into a hole in a wall, tree trunk, crack in a rock or corner of a building, but it is often built in bushes, overhanging boughs or the litter which accumulates in branches washed by floods. Five to eight white or slightly speckled eggs
are laid in April, and second broods are reared.

Food and feeding

For the most part insects and spiders are its food, but in winter large pupae and some seeds are taken.

References

  1. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T103885731A104334569.en
    . Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  2. ^
    doi:10.1525/auk.2010.127.4.966
    .
  3. ^ "Winter Wren". Cornell Lab - All About Birds. 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  4. ^ Jones, Calvin (2012). "Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes)". Ireland's Wildlife. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  5. doi:10.1046/j.1440-1703.2001.00448.x
    .
  6. ^ Wilson, Alexander (1808). American Ornithology; or, the Natural History of the Birds of the United States: Illustrated with Plates Engraved and Colored from Original drawings taken from Nature. Vol. 3. Philadelphia: Bradford and Inskeep. p. 139, Plate 8 fig. 6.
  7. ^ Vieillot, Louis Pierre (1819). Nouveau dictionnaire d'histoire naturelle, appliquée aux arts, à l'agriculture, à l'économie rurale et domestique, à la médecine, etc (in French). Vol. 34 (Nouvelle édition ed.). Paris: Deterville. p. 514.
  8. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4
    .
  9. JSTOR 4069309
    .
  10. ^ Mayr, Ernst; Greenway, James C. Jr, eds. (1960). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 9. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 415.
  11. ^
    Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (January 2022). "Dapple-throats, sugarbirds, fairy-bluebirds, kinglets, hyliotas, wrens & gnatcatchers"
    . IOC World Bird List Version 12.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  12. PMID 15129966
    .
  13. ^
    S2CID 8488125
    .
  14. PMID 15347509
    .
  15. ^ "Winter Wren Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology". www.allaboutbirds.org. Retrieved 2020-09-28.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to the winter wren.
Wikispecies has information related to Troglodytes hiemalis.
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