What to feed a baby wren

Kids' Inquiry of Diverse Species, Troglodytes aedon, house wren: INFORMATION

What do they look like?

House Wrens are small, squat birds that lack bold or characteristic markings. They have long, curved bills and are seen perching in the "wren posture" with the tail held up. Their heads, napes, and backs are almost uniformly brown with their throats and chests a uniform light grey. Some black, dark brown, or pinkish spots appear on their flanks, tails, and wings. There is a faint, white stripe above their eyebrows. They are usually 11 to 13 cm long and weigh between 10 and 12 g.

endothermic
bilateral symmetry

sexes alike

Range mass

10. 0 to 12.0 g

0.35 to 0.42 oz
Range length

11.0 to 13.0 cm

4.33 to 5.12 in

Where do they live?

House Wrens are native to the Nearctic region. During the breeding season they live from southern Canada to southern Argentina, Chile and the Falkland Islands. They spend the winter in a narrower range; the southern limits of the United States, southwestern California east to Florida and south throughout the Gulf Coast and Mexico.

nearctic
- native

What kind of habitat do they need?

In the wild House Wrens live in open, shrubby woodlands. However, they were named for their preference for small town and suburban backyards and human-made bird houses. Small wood-lots and forest edges are also well known habitats for these birds. Human farming and towns have created more good breeding habitat for the wren by fragmenting forests, which explains why the House Wren has expanded its range and numbers in North America. During the winter wrens live in thickets, shrubby and brushy areas, riparian forests, and savannas in the southern United States. In Mexico, they prefer tropical evergreen and semideciduous forests.

temperate
tropical
terrestrial

chaparral
forest
scrub forest

How do they reproduce?

monogamous

House Wren nest sizes range from 4 to 8 eggs, with one egg laid per day. Females develop single large incubation patches (bare areas of skin on their bellies) and will spend over half of their time incubating the eggs, once their entire clutch has been laid. Hatching begins about 12 days after the last egg is laid and occurs only during daylight hours. House Wrens are able to breed (have reached sexual maturity) when they are 1 year old, but some first time breeders skip the regular breeding time and choose instead to breed alongside the older birds who are attempting a second clutch in a season. House Wrens nest in tree cavities, such as old woodpecker holes. They preferring cavities closer to the ground with small entrances.

iteroparous
seasonal breeding
gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
sexual
fertilization
- internal
oviparous

How often does reproduction occur?

Breeding occurs in late April to early May with the majority of nests started in mid to late May. Some females that start a nest early will sometimes make a second nest in late June to early July.
Breeding season

Late April to July
Range eggs per season

4.0 to 8.0
Average eggs per season

7

AnAge
Average time to hatching

12.0 days
Average time to hatching

14 days

AnAge
Range fledging age

15. 0 to 17.0 days
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

1.0 years
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

1.0 years

The young are completely helpless and depend on their parents, who both care for the young. They fledge after about 15 to 17 days and all leave the nest within a few hours of each other.

altricial
male parental care
female parental care

How long do they live?

The oldest House Wren has been known to live is 7 years. It is hard to keep track of the age of individual birds because they do not always return to the same spot every year.

Range lifespan
Status: wild

7.0 (high) years
Average lifespan
Status: wild

108 months

Bird Banding Laboratory

How do they behave?

House Wrens mostly hop while on the ground and have a direct, steady flight only about 1 meter above the ground in open areas. House Wrens are most active during the day. They migrate yearly between breeding and wintering areas. They are very territorial and are usually found alone, in pairs, or in immediate family groups. Males take primary responsibility for defending the territory and will chase away intruders. They usually only have one mate, and both parents help to raise the young.

diurnal
motile
migratory
territorial

How do they communicate with each other?

House Wrens are widely known for their songs. While both sexes produce calls and songs, the males' songs are more complex. Altogether 130 different song types are known from House Wrens. Unmated males can sing for up to 10 minutes. Males with a mate are known to produce a "whispering song", where he sings without opening his bill to produce a very quiet song. This song type only occurs around the time of copulation. The purpose of the quiet song may be to not reveal the location of his fertile mate to other males. The female sings during the first days of pairing when she responds to her mate's song.

They will also communicate using body language. If a predator is approaching the male will crouch, droop his wings, erect his back feathers, and lower his fanned out tail.

visual
tactile
acoustic
chemical

What do they eat?

House wrens feed primarily on small, terrestrial insects. The independent young and adults consume mostly spiders, beetles, and bugs while the babies still in the nest (called nestlings) are fed mostly grasshoppers, crickets, and caterpillars. Adults will feed their young, and supplement their own diet, with sources of calcium such as mollusk shells.

carnivore
- eats non-insect arthropods

What eats them and how do they avoid being eaten?

Adults respond to predators by chasing and striking at the predators while giving a loud, harsh alarm call. Cats, rats, opossums, woodpeckers, foxes, owls, raccoons, squirrels, and various snakes are known predators of this species.

Known Predators
- domestic cats
- rats
- Virginia opossums
- woodpeckers
- foxes
- owls
- raccoons
- squirrels
- snakes

What roles do they have in the ecosystem?

House Wrens help to control several insect populations. They also supply an abundant food source for many different types of animals.

How do they interact with us?

House Wrens eat many insects that humans consider to be pests.

controls pest population

Are they endangered?

House Wrens are a very abundant species. They live in semi-forested areas, which is a common habitat type so conservation management is not necessary. However, House Wrens are protected under the U.S. Migratory Bird Act. These birds are quite tolerant of habitat change and nest disturbance, allowing them to live and reproduce successfully even in human populated areas.

IUCN Red List

Least Concern
More information

There are roughly 30 different subspecies of House Wrens. These subspecies are divided into 5 groups: Northern House Wrens, Brown-throated Wrens, Southern House Wrens, Antillean House Wrens and Cozumel Wrens. Southern House Wrens have 20 of the subspecies in their category.

Brown-headed Cowbirds sometimes lay their eggs in House Wren nests. These birds act as a parasite to House Wrens but, because Brown-headed Cowbirds usually are too big to enter House Wren's cavity nests, this is a very rare occurrence.

How to Care for Wild Baby Wren Birds

by G.D. Palmer / in Family

Wrens are extremely common throughout the western hemisphere. These birds build their nests in many unusual places, including old boxes, discarded cans, and inside sheds and garages. It's not unusual for humans to find abandoned baby wrens or babies that have fallen from trees. Caring for a wild baby bird can be tricky, but the right supplies and background knowledge make it much easier.

Examine the baby bird. If it has no injuries, place it back in its nest. Wrens often hide their nests, so this may be difficult. If you can't find the nest, place the bird in a small container, such as a berry basket, lined with newspaper. Place the basket in dense shrubs or undergrowth.

Wrens are extremely common throughout the western hemisphere.
Wrens often hide their nests, so this may be difficult.

Observe the area. If the parents don't return to interact with the baby, you may assume that it is an orphan.

Take the bird to a wildlife conservation group. Injured baby wrens or wrens without parents should be cared for by professionals. If possible, contact your local wildlife group and have them care for the baby wren. If a group is not available, take the bird inside for home care.

If the parents don't return to interact with the baby, you may assume that it is an orphan.
If possible, contact your local wildlife group and have them care for the baby wren.

Provide a warm nest. Line a shoebox with newspaper or paper towels. Cut small holes in the lid of the box, and place the baby bird inside. Keep the box covered and away from children and pets. Provide warmth with a desk lamp fitted with a high-wattage incandescent bulb. Avoid fluorescent bulbs, which do not provide enough heat.

Feed baby wrens regularly. Baby birds need food every 15 to 20 minutes while the sun is shining. Mix one part protein, such as soaked puppy kibble, beef baby food or prescription dog food, with two parts high protein baby cereal or powdered grain meal to produce a thick liquid. Feed the baby via eyedropper or syringe.

Teach the bird to eat insects. As the baby grows older, provide small crawling insects, such as mealworms, at each feeding. Press an insect against its beak to encourage a feeding response. Eventually, the baby wren will learn to pick them up. Don't worry if it takes some time--feeding is instinctive.

Feed baby wrens regularly.
As the baby grows older, provide small crawling insects, such as mealworms, at each feeding.

Provide a larger box as the bird grows. Older birds need more space and will be uncomfortable in a shoebox. Take the bird outside in a cage or box from time to time to get it used to the outdoors. Do not allow the bird to fly freely in the house.

Release the baby wren. When the baby is old enough to fly and feed itself, place its cage or box in a familiar outdoor area with no roaming dogs or cats. Leave the lid or door open, and allow the bird to fly away as it chooses. Leave food in the cage for several weeks, so that the wren has time to adjust, but don't handle or talk to it. Eventually, the wren will become wild again.

Provide a larger box as the bird grows.
Leave food in the cage for several weeks, so that the wren has time to adjust, but don't handle or talk to it.

Baby birds require constant care and supervision to survive. Do not get food under the baby bird's tongue, as it can choke. Keeping wrens as pets is illegal in most areas.

How to feed the found chick, how many times a day

If you find a chick, the first thing you need to do is determine its species. Feeding granivorous, insectivorous and predatory chicks have their own differences. But in the early stages of feeding, you can use the same feeding methods, and then, after finding out what kind of bird you found, transfer the chick to the appropriate feeding.

Here is one of the most common feeding options for granivorous and insectivorous chicks. This nutrient mixture is well used for feeding for chicks and fledglings from the passerine family. To prepare our mixture, we need the following products: Boiled egg, low-fat cottage cheese, raw carrots, meat (beef, chicken, turkey), greens (lettuce, dandelion leaves, wood lice), hamarus and daphnia, Calcium gluconate (shell from boiled eggs) glycerophosphate , children's dry dairy-free porridge or boiled millet (without salt and fat on the water).

Action one. Boil the egg, free from the shell. We free the shell from the shell film. Grind the egg as much as possible, you can use a grater with small holes.

Second step. Boiled meat, it is better to take the pulp from the breast of a turkey or chicken and also chop or divide into fibers. The mixture will require meat 40 (for granivorous) and 60 grams (for insectivorous).

Third step. Take washed carrots of a small size, grate them on a fine grater, then squeeze the juice and we will use the remaining pulp.

Fourth step. We take not sour and not fatty cottage cheese. Cottage cheese should have 0% fat content, anything above is considered fat for poultry. We need 90-110 grams of cottage cheese. Sour cottage cheese must be boiled twice changing the water and then it will be suitable.

Step five. You can use greens to add the mixture, but you can do without it for the chicks. And so you can take the greens listed above, chop and add 1.5 teaspoons to the mixture.

Action six. To the above ingredients, add 1.5 -2 tsp. dairy-free porridge or boiled millet (well boiled, without salt and fat in the water).

Step seven. To the mixture we add the shell from the boiled egg, which must first be ground in a coffee grinder, plus one fourth of the crushed tablet of glycerophosphate. If it is not possible to find glycerophosphate, then you can purchase bone meal and add one fourth tsp. in powder form. At the very least, the shells are enough for now.

Step eight. We take chopped hamarus and daphnia and add about 1 tsp to the resulting mixture. Then we mix everything, it turns out a very thick, crumbly porridge, it should not stick to the fingers. If the mixture is sticky, you can add dairy-free porridge or powdered cereals.

From the resulting mixture we roll small balls no larger than a small pea, focus on the size of the chick's beak. You can feed 2-5 balls at a time and after each feeding drink plain water from an insulin syringe with a removable needle (without a needle) 4-6 drops. A week-old chick should be fed every 1-1.5 hours, older than two weeks of age every 2-4 hours, at three and four weeks of age you can feed 3-4 times a day. Do not forget that the chick is growing and, accordingly, one-time portions of food are growing. A very important point, do not forget to warm the chicks, because at their age they themselves cannot maintain normal body temperature. Warming up promotes better assimilation of feed. Don't forget to control your chick's weight. If possible, show the chick to a specialist. To control the work of the intestines, you can take the litter from the chick for a coprogram, this is an analysis of the digestibility of the feed.

Take care and love your feathered friends and they will love you back.

Veterinarian ornithologist
Chuguevsky VV

Veterinary clinic Bambi.

You can ask an ornithologist on the forum.

What to do if you find a chick? - Latest news of Belgorod and the region

Biologist Olga Kuvykina warns against the main mistakes that citizens make when picking up chicks that have fallen out of the nest.

Every summer I receive letters asking me to help feed the chicks. They begin the same way: “The chicks have fallen out of the nest! There are cats, people, cars around, so I took them home. But what to do now? Sometimes they literally blackmail me, they press on pity, that if I don’t take the bird, it will die. These unfortunate rescuers write in social networks how kind they are, and how callous everyone around is. But callousness should not be confused with realism and understanding of the situation.

Different countries have different attitudes towards birds. Costa Rica, for example, lives in ecotourism, so drinking bowls with sugar water for hummingbirds hang in the courtyards of hotels, and groups of birdwatchers - bird watchers - roam the forests from morning to night, hugging huge cameras.

In the Netherlands, birds are not offended, and herons sit on the hoods of cars, and songbirds let them at arm's length.

In Cyprus and Italy snacks made from warblers, goldfinches and other small songbirds have become fashionable. Millions of birds fall into the net every year and end up in the stomachs of gourmets. The number of songbirds is falling. Barbarism, the new Middle Ages, senseless cruelty.

In Laos, they eat everything that moves because they are hungry, so not only birds, but also frogs and beetles get it.

Russians fall into two extremes: from complete indifference, when they do not notice even such bright and large beauties in the yard as bullfinches and jays, to strong pity and kindness, and this kindness kills.

The babies of most of our birds leave the nests, not yet able to fly normally. Having scattered around the area, they are more likely to survive than sitting in one nest in front of predators. Such teenage flyers are called fledglings. They sit in the bushes, squeak and wait for their parents. Parents look after them, feed them, teach them to get food and recognize enemies. Adult tits rarely fall into the clutches of predators, but naive fledglings that themselves jump into their mouths easily. Therefore, broods of small birds are numerous and are calculated on the fact that out of six, say, two will survive. The most courageous, smart and maneuverable.

The first few days of departure from the nest are the most dangerous. Thrush chicks sit in the grass, where they are strangled by dogs - both stray and owner. Dogs hunt for ducklings and other waterfowl - just today I had to say something to the owner of a husky and pit bull, who set his pets on the moorhens in the pond.

Moorhens (they are confused with ducks, but they are relatives of cranes), grebes, swans and ducks of various species are our native wild fauna that require protection, while dogs are an invasive species that must be controlled.

If desired, the dog can be trained not to chase birds and cats. The running of dogs after other animals in many countries is fraught with the dogs themselves - in the reserves they have the right to shoot them, otherwise deer and other animals driven by dogs die from wounds and stress.

Jays, crows, geese and some other birds are no more stupid than dogs. They suffer greatly when they eat their babies. When a White Swiss Shepherd came to me, I quickly weaned it from running after hedgehogs and other animals. The dog turned out to be very smart, he understood my every word.

Another problem for waterfowl is the “cultivation” of water areas. Along the banks of the reservoirs, grass is mowed and concrete embankments are made. The ducklings are unable to get out of the water to rest on land and die. In Moscow, mass death of ducklings was noted after the transformation of parks into a concrete jungle. People who care save the birds - they make floating wooden rafts for them. A lot of rafts are needed, as more aggressive swans and shelducks take them away from mallards. An ideal place for ducks, as well as for nightingales and bluethroats nesting on the ground, in the bushes near the water, is a pond near which they never mow and set fire to the grass, do not mow the bushes and, of course, leave the banks as nature created them ! By the way, in several parks of the capital nightingales almost disappeared after "cultivation".

Titmouses, robins and blackbirds jumping in the bushes, and even such exotic things as corncrake chicks that look like black chickens, of course, attract the attention of compassionate citizens. They take the "orphans" home. And in vain! The only possible help for fledglings is to put them higher in dense bushes and leave, taking cats and dogs with them. No need to stomp around the chicks for a long time, attracting the attention of crows. The rest is what I would call the “feed your conscience” metaphor.

Fledglings are brought home and fed with bread, meat, cat food, milk. Fledglings of insectivorous birds with the most delicate intestines! Of course, they die from poisoning. It happens that people go to the necessary forums and publics in VK, for example, maybirds.ru, determine the type of bird and find out that you can only feed fledglings with insects. They buy crickets at the pet store and still feed the birds. But the question arises - why? Fosterlings will not survive in the forest without rehabilitation. They will die. Fed up, released from the balcony and rejoice? The next day there will be nothing left of the chicks. If you take them to the forest and launch them into a flock of nomadic songbirds, then there is a chance.

To increase the survival rate from 10 to 90, you need to leave the birds at home for life or organize rehabilitation for them - build a large aviary in the country with grass, bushes and insects, and teach your feathered friends to get food on their own. It is advisable to feed a flock of tits and other wild birds nearby so that the fledglings can communicate with them. You can contact the wildlife centers. There are few of them in Russia, and mostly they are private - people save animals with their own money and on their own. It's hard. That is, it is unlikely that you will be happy to accept a thrush chick, but the chicks of birds of prey are usually welcome. Predators are listed in the Red Book. They are large and easier to handle.

When in front of you is not a fledgling, but a chick, that is, a half-naked creature, then the question is why did it fall? Usually the weak, sick fall out, they are not residents anyway. But healthy ones can also fall into a hurricane. You can try to find a nest, bring a ladder and put the chicks back. It's a myth that their parents won't accept them. Birds have a weak sense of smell.

The chick is wounded, the wing hangs, the leg is broken, but you stubbornly take it out of the dog's mouth? Surgery of small birds in the Russian Federation is not developed. Such a chick is a suicide bomber in most cases.

In Europe, wild animals are often euthanized if they realize that they cannot be helped - for example, woodpeckers with broken beaks, chicks with numerous fractures, foxes that have been hit by cars. You can not watch how a living being slowly dies in agony. The state veterinary police arrives and does everything necessary. The decision is made by specialists: ordinary citizens are freed from this ethical torment. Minor fractures in owls and other birds of prey are treatable, but long-term rehabilitation in an aviary is needed.

Are you ready to feed/treat your chick? Do you want to give it to someone as soon as possible, relieve yourself of the burden of responsibility, although you found the bird? It will be more honest to pass by if it is a common species like a thrush. Rare birds, of course, are better to pick up. An owl can always be attached to some living corner, but not a thrush - a noisy and grumpy bird.

Robins, redstarts, great tits, titmouse, crows, gray flycatchers, pied flycatchers, green woodpeckers nest in my yard every year. This year, a couple of black woodpeckers came - outlandish, huge birds. And all this under the noses of the cats that were thrown to me, and I cured them, sterilized and vaccinated them. Wagtail parents rush at cats when they pass by chicks.

Living nearby cats and birds is quite possible under certain conditions. You can't mow all the grass. You can not cut all the bushes. Goldfinches and bullfinches eat the seeds of dandelions, burdocks and vesicles. Fledglings hide in tall grass. Insects live in dense forbs, with which birds feed their babies.

Burning and mowing kill caterpillars and other insects. Including, by the way, rare and beautiful butterflies. So, the caterpillar of the wine hawk moth - it is pink in color - feeds on willow-tea, and they also like to mow it. Caterpillars of bright butterflies-urticaria and peacock's eye eat mainly nettles. We mowed all the nettles - goodbye, cute butterflies.

Cats must wear bright, wide collars that are visible to birds. On the trunks of trees where the birds made a nest, you can attach a plastic "collar", then no one will climb the tree.

By the way, crows and jays willingly eat ducklings and songbird chicks, but these feathered bandits are so smart and interesting that I can't call them "harmful". Once I made friends with a fledgling of a crow - I treated him to a little pieces of meat, and he saw me off, flew after me. His parents all summer scolded the chick for such trust in a person, and in the fall they flew away with him somewhere far away. I treat the jay with walnuts, acorns, slices of white bread. Bullfinches, tits and squirrels - nuts and seeds. Anything salty, fried, and moldy is poison to birds.

Orioles and titmouse sing in the yard in the mornings, nightingales and redstarts sing at night. I don't like listening to the radio, I prefer silence and birdsong.

A characteristic sign of the onset of a warm, stable spring is the return of swifts from Africa home. They are often confused with swallows, although, unlike swallows, these birds fly at the speed of fighters, almost do not get sick and emit a loud, shrill “Vzii-iiii!”.

Swifts, oddly enough, do not have fledglings. Chicks fly out of the nest when they are already adapted to adulthood. Hitting the walls of houses, sometimes swifts fall to the ground and lie there for some time, stunned. The paws are short, the wings are long - you can’t take off from the ground. You need to take the swift in your hands, climb the hill, lift the bird up, and it will fly away by itself.

Quite often too curious chicks fall out of their nests under the roofs and lie on the pavement. If it is not possible to plant the birds back, then you can become their foster parents for a month or two. Swifts do everything in flight, even drink on the fly. Parents do not need to teach them any special skills. So manual swifts can and should be released immediately. They will join the flock and fly to Africa in August.

Feeding a haircut is not so easy - every two hours you have to stuff him with the abdomens of frozen banana crickets and drink water from a pipette. Crickets with delivery are easily ordered via the Internet. I recommend reading about all the intricacies of feeding a shear on the portal “Give the sky to a bird!”.

It's funny that one day it was a predator - a cat - who helped save a swift. I often walked with a brilliant black cat who understood me as a person. He followed me around everywhere. He did not offend birds, but sometimes he caught mice. The cat led me to the house where the chick fell out - the cat knew about it, but I didn’t. He sat down next to me and meowed. Around the haircut were people who tried to feed him bread. I took a naked swift home. When he grew up and took off from my palm clearly upwards, like a rocket, it was a little sad - I became attached to him .