July 23 A House Wren Scolding

Today at the Nature Center, I walked close to a nesting box and looked and listened for young birds inside. Then I heard a loud rattling call the was a clear warning sign from this most tiny bird. It's the mother house wren (Troglodytes aedon). At the Eagle Heights gardens, there are many very small basket birdhouses that are meant to fit these four and a half inch birds. I never saw them in my hometown in Illinois growing up but this year in Madison I see or hear them most days in front yards as I bike through town in the mornings. These 11 gram birds are impressively widespread, living from Buenos Aires to Calgary. Their songs are also incredible, with several notes and dozens of individual pulses in a rattling, chattering, ramble that they will sometimes sing on repeat. I have certainly learned how aggressive they can be in defending their nest cavities. Even in the forested areas of the Lakeshore Preserve, I have seen a female wren come out of her cavity fifty feet above me and yell for me to keep walking. This mother continued scolding me until I was around the corner and out of sight.