Almost every morning, just before dawn, a Carolina wren begins to sing outside our Columbia, Missouri, home. Its loud, repetitive, distinctive tune is not merely a response to spring; rather, it is heard throughout the year, providing a reliable wake-up call.
Common, permanent residents across the central and eastern U.S., from the Great Lakes region southward, Carolina wrens are thought to mate for life and are often observed in pairs; in years with mild winters, their range expands northward and, in recent years, they have begun to appear as far west as the Colorado Front Range. Primarily insectivores during the warmer months, they also consume seeds, berries and suet in winter.
These attractive wrens, reddish-brown above with a white brow-line, white throat and buff-colored chest and abdomen, nest in a variety of natural and man-made cavities; the latter include brush piles, bird houses and crevices in walls and out-buildings. Favoring open woodlands or forest margins with an understory of shrubs, Carolina wrens are common in suburbia where their song and calls are heard from dawn to dusk in all seasons.
Common, permanent residents across the central and eastern U.S., from the Great Lakes region southward, Carolina wrens are thought to mate for life and are often observed in pairs; in years with mild winters, their range expands northward and, in recent years, they have begun to appear as far west as the Colorado Front Range. Primarily insectivores during the warmer months, they also consume seeds, berries and suet in winter.
These attractive wrens, reddish-brown above with a white brow-line, white throat and buff-colored chest and abdomen, nest in a variety of natural and man-made cavities; the latter include brush piles, bird houses and crevices in walls and out-buildings. Favoring open woodlands or forest margins with an understory of shrubs, Carolina wrens are common in suburbia where their song and calls are heard from dawn to dusk in all seasons.
