House wrens

Written by Karin "Kitty" McKelvey of Wild Bird Center
August 07, 2010

Something wonderful happened to me this morning that I will remember for the rest of my life.  First I'll give a little background story.  For the first time in 9 years of having several wren houses in my front and back yards a female wren agreed with the male that my houses were good enough. They successfully raised two young ones in about one month.  I put a small mealworm feeder near their house where not alot of other birds would notice it.  Within five minutes of first hanging it they flew to it and ate some for themselves and some for their babies.  I was shocked how quickly they noticed the wiggly worms.  I quickly got over my disgust of the worms because I loved pleasing the wrens.

 Then for their next brood they chose another house in my yard on the other side of the fence about twenty feet from their first home.  About three weeks into breeding I found a dead wren in seemingly perfect condition.  It wasn't dead from a window collision, just possibly from heat and exhaustion.  Unfortunately it was one of the parents, so I increased my worm feeding to help the single parent.  This morning I walked to the feeder, opened the worm cup and before I could fill the feeder the hungry wren landed on my hand.  It didn't sit for long but it  gripped its tiny little claws on my finger.  It flew to the feeder and then the branch above waiting for me to sprinkle some worms.  They seemed to learn quickly that I was a provider for them and would stay nearby when I went to the feeder but I never expected one to touch me.  I can't tell you how much they've touched my heart now. 

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