Bewick's Wren

Overview

Bewick's Wren: Small wren with unstreaked, gray to red-brown upperparts and plain white underparts. White eyebrows are conspicuous. Tail is long and white-edged with dark bars. Bill is long and slightly decurved. Legs and feet are gray. Eastern populations have seriously declined since the 1960s.

Range and Habitat

Bewick's Wren: Resident in British Columbia and the western and southern U.S. Eastern birds spend winters in the Gulf coast states. Preferred habitats include thickets, brush piles, hedgerows, open woodlands, and scrubby areas, often near streams.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Bewick’s Wren was named by Audubon for Thomas Bewick, the English naturalist.
The male learns its song while still on the parents' territory.
It learns songs of neighboring territorial males. The song repertoire developed before the first winter is retained for life.
The severe declines of this wren in the eastern United States coincided with range expansion of the House Wren. It is suspected that the House Wren was directly responsible for the decline.
A group of wrens has many collective nouns, including a "chime", "flight", "flock", and "herd" of wrens.

The Bewick's Wren is native to the United States, Mexico and Canada. This bird has a global range of more than 3 million square kilometers. The population of Bewick's Wren is thought to be around 6 million individual birds. In 2000 Bewick's Wren had a rating of Lower Risk. Since that time, this species of bird has been downgraded to Least Concern due to no current concerns regarding possible population decline. It is not believed that this bird is in any immediate danger.