House Wrens and Dummy Nests
5/6/20262 min
There may be no busier bird during the nesting season than a male House Wren. Just a day or so after completing his spring migration from the tropics, the male House Wren claims a territory and checks out several potential nest cavities. And in each of these locations, he builds a starter nest using virtually anything twig-like to get the job done — from nails and bits of wire to paper clips and hairpins. The male House Wren stays at it until a female pairs with him. Then she picks one of the starter nests and takes over construction.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMichael Stein· Host0:00
[upbeat music] This is BirdNote. [bird chirping] There may be no busier bird during the nesting season than a male house wren, because just a day or so after migrating back north from the tropics, he claims a territory and sets to work checking out potential nest cavities. Might be a birdhouse, a hollow pipe, an old nuthatch hole, or one of last year's oriole nests. And in each of these locations, the male house wren builds a starter nest. [bird chirping] He'll stack a couple of dozen tiny twigs here, several hundred there, and he'll use whatever else comes to hand, or beak, too, from nails and bits of wire to paper clips and hairpins. Anything twig-like to get the job done. The male house wren stays at it until a female pairs with him. She now picks one of the starter nests and takes over construction, building a sturdy platform of sticks topped by a cup nest lined with grass, hair, feathers, even snakeskin. The male's leftover starter nests may discourage other birds from nesting in those cavities. People maintaining bluebird houses have learned to dump out these dummy nests once a female house wren has made her choice. This helps bluebirds find a space to nest, at least until next spring, when that male house wren gets busy again.