The northern house wren is a plain songbird, but its bubbling songs and nonstop activity make this cavity nester a pleasure to observe.
Attract and Identify a Northern House Wren
Updated on Nov. 20, 2024
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What Does a Northern House Wren Look Like?
People often describe the northern house wren as plain because the bird has simple brown colors. But don’t disregard these backyard guests. Northern house wrens measure 4 3/4 inches long with a wingspan of 6 inches. Look for a bird with a brown body and narrow dark bars or stripes on its wings and tail.
Learn how to identify and attract a Carolina wren and a Bewick’s wren.
Northern House Wren Song
An unstoppable waterfall of notes spills from the throat of the tiny, indefatigable northern house wren, one of our most beloved backyard birds. What house wrens lack in appearance they make up for with their songs. In fact, it’s not uncommon for male northern house wrens to sing nine to 11 times per minute during breeding season.
The male’s singing is mostly a territorial claim. Wrens often nest close to people, so you’re likely to hear them this spring. Listen for their boisterous melodies during the summer season. Their rapid rolling trill rises and then descends into a bubbling song.
The northern house wren is the virtuoso, but all wrens have voices that will perk your ears up.
Listen to the northern house wren’s song.
Bird songs provided by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Enjoy delightful pictures of wren birds.
Northern House Wren Nest Boxes
Even though northern house wrens don’t stop at feeders, they are still a common backyard bird because they’re cavity nesters. They use natural cavities but they also like manmade nest boxes. Create a brush pile and grow plenty of trees and shrubs for them to use for nesting.
If you put up a birdhouse with a 1-1/8-inch entrance, you have a good chance of welcoming a northern house wren family. Chickadees and wrens nest in the same kind of birdhouse. If it says, “wren house,” it will work for both species.
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Nests and Eggs
The male is serious about nest-building in spring, because it’s what helps him attract a mate. He starts constructing a few nests at once. His female partner chooses the most promising one, finishes it and mates with the owner.
Six or seven speckled-white eggs are laid in a nest of twigs hidden in a tree cavity or birdhouse. Northern house wrens may lay as many as 10 eggs in one brood. On occasion, the eggs may hatch in only nine days, but 12 is more typical. You’ll know the moment because the babies begin cheeping.
Do wren sightings have special meaning?
What Does a Northern House Wren Eat?
Since they mostly eat insects, you won’t see them at feeders much, but they will stop by sometimes for seed and suet.
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Range Map and Habitat
This species is the most common wren in North America, present throughout most of the continent during summer. Look for these wrens foraging for insects in low tree branches, shrubs and brush piles in backyards, parks and open woods. The more places there are for insects to hide, the better the habitat is for northern house wrens.
Range maps provided by Kaufman Field Guides, the official field guide of Birds & Blooms.
When do northern house wrens return in spring?
Sources
- All About Birds – Northern house wren
- Project Feederwatch – House wren
