A house wren makes a home
By Shelley Tender, Interpretive Services Manager
House wrens are secondary cavity nesters — meaning they don’t excavate their own cavities, but instead make their homes in naturally occurring hollow spaces or those made and abandoned by other species.
Like the familiar eastern bluebird, house wrens will utilize man-made nest boxes for nest sites. While nest-building, the male is especially hardworking as he crams sticks into the cavity to fill the entire space. In fact, he will select several potential nest locations in which to do this, then wait for the female to choose her preferred location.
Once she does, she will line the very top of the sticks with a bed of soft grasses and other natural materials, then lay five to eight small white eggs bespeckled with pinkish-brown spots. After an incubation period of approximately 13 days, babies are cared for by the parents until they are ready to fledge at around 18 days old.
