Saturday Species Spotlight: Carolina Wren
Looks Like: Carolina wrens are small brown birds with a white stripe above the eye. They usually hold their tails alert and upward. They are the most common of four wren species recorded in the Shawangunks.
Sounds Like: Carolina wrens are very active and vocal birds, Mohonk Preserve has noted in our records by their loud songs and scolding alarm notes.
Lives In: Carolina wrens like brush in younger forests but are very much at home around farm homesteads and subdivisions. Mohonk Preserve has also recorded them in the area of cliffs and talus slopes. They have also been seen roosting in winter in covered wood piles.
Niche: Carolina wrens are mostly insectivorous, feeding on small insects found on the bark of trees and on and near the ground. They will also occasionally pick at fruit and seeds if encountered and come to bird feeders where they will eat a diversity of offerings, from cracked corn and grains to suet.
Threats: Carolina wrens are for the most part a successful species. We have noted their absence in years following severe winters with lengthy deep snow on the ground and prolonged cold.
Frequency: The species inhabits roughly the eastern third of the U.S., including the St. Lawrence River corridor, and adjacent eastern Mexico and the Yucatán. Carolina wrens are resident birds in the Shawangunks and don’t migrate. Our first record at the Preserve’s Daniel Smiley Research Center was from April, 1927. From the late 1940s and early 1950s onward, they have been heard and seen regularly at all times of year.
Reproduction: Carolina wrens are adaptable nest builders. Nests have been found to be made of natural and human-made materials gathered by the adults, and constructed in a wide variety of places. They have been known to have multiple broods in one breeding season, eggs are mostly milky whitish with brown blotches and spots.
Fun Fact: At the Preserve, Carolina Wrens were seen entering a barn through a small hole in a window, flying across the barn floor to the opposite side of the interior, and nesting in an old fish tank stored on a table. The pair built their nest in ornamental plastic water plants piled inside the fish tank. And, they successfully fledged their young!
