General

Wrentit: Small, noisy songbird with dark gray upperparts and thick streaked, reddish-brown underparts. Bill is short and black. Tail is very long and dark. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Wrentit: Resident from the Columbia River on the northern border of Oregon southward along coastal chaparral into Baja California and into the Sierra Nevada foothills of California. Chaparral, shrubs, and brush are preferred habitats.

Breeding and Nesting

Wrentit: Three to five pale green blue eggs are laid in a neat cup nest made of bark fiber, held together by cobwebs, and hidden in a low bush. Incubation ranges from 15 to 16 days and is carried out by both parents.

Foraging and Feeding

Wrentit: Eats insects, fruits, and spiders. Main diet consists of berries and fruits during winter.

Readily Eats

Apple Slices, Peanut Butter

Vocalization

Wrentit: Song is an accelerating series of musical notes running together into a trill and dropping slightly in pitch toward the end: "peep peep peep-pee-pee-peepeepepeprrrr." Call is a prolonged dry, growling note. This species is far more often heard than seen.

Similar Species

Wrentit: Bushtit is smaller, has plain, pale gray underparts, and buff to black face patch.