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Bewick's Wren

Thryomanes bewickiiOrder: PASSERIFORMES Family: Wrens (Troglodytidae)
Codes: Common Name: BEWR Scientific Name: THRBEW ITIS Taxonomic No.: 178562
Least Concern
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Bewick's Wren
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Attracting Clingers

Overview

Bewick's Wren: Small wren with unstreaked, gray to red-brown upperparts and plain white underparts. White eyebrows are conspicuous. Tail is long and white-edged with dark bars. Bill is long and slightly decurved. Legs and feet are gray. Eastern populations have seriously declined since the 1960s.


Range and Habitat

Bewick's Wren: Resident in British Columbia and the western and southern U.S. Eastern birds spend winters in the Gulf coast states. Preferred habitats include thickets, brush piles, hedgerows, open woodlands, and scrubby areas, often near streams.

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Topo Map: Perching-like Body


Listen to Call

Similar Sounding

Voice Text

"chip, chip, chip, de-da-ah, tee-dee"

Interesting Facts

 The Bewick’s Wren was named by Audubon for Thomas Bewick, the English naturalist.

 The male learns its song while still on the parents' territory. It learns songs of neighboring territorial males. The song repertoire developed before the first winter is retained for life.

 The severe declines of this wren in the eastern United States coincided with range expansion of the House Wren. It is suspected that the House Wren was directly responsible for the decline.

 A group of wrens has many collective nouns, including a "chime", "flight", "flock", and "herd" of wrens.


Bird Term Glossary



Author

Gary Owen Dick

Artist

Imran Kahn

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Range Map for Bewick's Wren

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Family Wren (Troglodytidae)_blue
Species Thryomanes bewickii
Length5.25 Inches
Wingspan7.25 Inches

Bewick's Wren

Bewick's Wren: Small wren with unstreaked, gray to red-brown upperparts and plain white underparts. White eyebrows are conspicuous. Tail is long and white-edged with dark bars. Bill is long and slightly decurved. Legs and feet are gray. Eastern populations have seriously declined since the 1960s.

● Song: "chip, chip, chip, de-da-ah, tee-dee"

● Foraging & Feeding: Bewick's Wren: Diet consists mostly of insects and spiders; forages on the ground and in trees.

● Breeding & nesting: Bewick's Wren: Four to eleven white eggs, flecked with purple, brown, and gray, are laid in a stick nest lined with leaves, grass, and feathers, and built in almost any available cavity, including a woodpecker hole, tin can, coat pocket or sleeve, basket, tool shed, or brush pile. Incubation ranges from 12 to 14 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Bewick's Wren: House and Rock Wrens lack white eyebrows. Carolina Wren is rust-brown above and buff below. Marsh Wren is smaller and has a streaked back.

Flight Pattern

Weak fluttering flight with shallow wing beats.
Bewicks Wren Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Bewick's Wren: Resident in British Columbia and the western and southern U.S. Eastern birds spend winters in the Gulf coast states. Preferred habitats include thickets, brush piles, hedgerows, open woodlands, and scrubby areas, often near streams.
BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester
PopulationDeclining east of Rocky Mountains
MigrationSome migrate
Weight0.4 Ounces
Perching-like BodyX
UnderpartsX
Belly, undertail coverts, chest, flanks, and foreneck.
UpperpartsX
Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.
4 and 6 letter alpha codesX

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

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ITIS CodesX

The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) was established in the mid-1990�s as a cooperative project among several federal agencies to improve and expand upon taxonomic data (known as the NODC Taxonomic Code) maintained by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

To find the ITIS page for a bird species go to the ITIS web site advanced search and report page at http://www.itis.gov/advanced_search.html. You can enter the TSN or the common name of the bird. It will return the ITIS page for that bird. Another way to obtain the ITIS page is to use the Google search engine. Enter the string ITIS followed by the taxonomic ID, for example "ITIS 178041" will return the page for the Allen's Hummingbird.

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Parts of a Standing birdX
Head Feathers and MarkingsX
Parts of a Flying birdX