Carolina Wren

Thryothorus ludovicianus

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family TROGLODYTIDAE

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

Singing one of the loudest songs per volume of bird, the Carolina Wren's "tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle" is familiar across the Southeast. It is a common bird in urban areas, and is more likely to nest in a hanging plant than in a birdhouse.

Cool Facts

• The Carolina Wren is sensitive to cold weather, with the northern populations decreasing markedly after severe winters. The gradually increasing winter temperatures over the last century may have been responsible for the northward range expansion seen in the mid-1900s.

• Unlike other wren species in its genus, only the male Carolina Wren sings the loud song. In other species, such as the Stripe-breasted Wren of Central America, both members of a pair sing together. The male and female sing different parts, and usually interweave their songs such that they sound like a single bird singing.

• One captive male Carolina Wren sang nearly 3,000 times in a single day.

• A pair bond may form between a male and a female at any time of the year, and the pair will stay together for life. Members of a pair stay together on their territory year-round, and forage and move around the territory together.

Description

• Size: 12-14 cm (5-6 in)
• Wingspan: 29 cm (11 in)
• Weight: 18-22 g (0.64-0.78 ounces)

• Small buffy songbird.
• Tail often held upward.
• Rusty underparts.
• White eyestripe.
• Loud.

• Large to medium-sized wren.
• Throat, chin, and eyestripe white.
• Breast and belly cinnamon and unstreaked.
• Back unstreaked rusty brown.
• Dark bill slender and slightly down-curved.
• Tail medium-length, rusty brown with darker barring and inconspicuous white spots on outer edge of outermost tail feather.
• Undertail coverts barred black and white.
• Wings rusty with dark barring.

Sex Differences

Sexes look alike; male slightly larger

Immature

Juvenile similar to adult, but paler and with unbarred undertail coverts.

Similar Species

• Bewick's Wren grayer, without rusty on sides or breast. Bewick's tail is longer, has black outer feathers tipped in white, and is more often flipped around.

Sound

Song a loud, repeated series of several whistled notes: "tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle." Calls include a loud chatter and a rising and falling "cheer."

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Resident from eastern Kansas to southern Ontario and Massachusetts, southward to Gulf Coast and into northeastern Mexico. Also a population in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Habitat

Found in a wide range of habitats, from swamps to forest to residential area. Requires moderately dense shrub or brushy cover.

Food

Insects and spiders.

Behavior

Foraging

Gleans insects from ground, tree trunks, and branches. Probes into cracks. Turns over vegetation with its bill. Dismembers large insects by hammering with its bill and shaking it until small pieces break off.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nest a domed cup with a side entrance. Nest bulky and made of bark strips, dried grasses, dead leaves, hair, feathers, paper, plastic, or string. Placed in tree cavity, vine tangle, dense branches, or artificial site such as a mailbox, up to 10 feet above ground, rarely higher.

Egg Description

Color: Creamy white with fine brown spots.

Size: 18.2?19.8 mm x 13.9?15.5 mm.
(0.72-0.78 in x 0.55-0.61 in)

Incubation period: 12-16 days.

Clutch Size

3-7 eggs.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless with some pale gray down.
Chicks fledge in 12-14 days.

Conservation Status

Abundant; populations stable or increasing. Significant range expansion in early 1900s.

Other Names

Troglodyte de Caroline (French)
Saltapared carolinense (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Haggerty, T. M., and E. S. Morton. 1995. Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus). In The Birds of North America, No. 188 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.