General

House Wren: Small wren with brown head, nape, and back showing very fine dark brown bars, faint white eyebrows, and gray-brown underparts with fine brown bars on flanks and below tail. Wings and tail are brown with darker bars. Brown-throated Wrens have a bolder eyebrow and a darker throat. Northern birds are grayer overall with baring on the flanks. Southern birds have light brown upperparts and buff underparts. Bill is thin and slightly decurved. Sexes are similar and juveniles have a rufous rump.

Range and Habitat

House Wren: Breeds from southern Canada southward to central California, central New Mexico, northern Arkansas, and northern Georgia. Other forms are found from Mexico southward throughout South America and the West Indies. Winters in the southern U.S. and Mexico. Preferred habitats include open woodlands, forest edges, forest openings, shrubby areas and farmlands.

Breeding and Nesting

House Wren: Five to nine white eggs with brown flecks are laid in a nest made of sticks and grass, lined with feathers and soft materials, and built in a tree cavity, crevice, or nest box. Incubation ranges from 13 to 15 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

House Wren: Eats insects such as grasshoppers, beetles, crickets, true bugs, and caterpillars; also feeds on spiders, millipedes, and snails; forages by gleaning insects from leaves and shrubs.

Vocalization

House Wren: Song is beautiful, trilling, energetic flutelike melody, delivered in a gurgling outburst and repeated at short intervals. Call is a rough, scolding "cheh-cheh", which often runs into a scolding chatter.

Similar Species

House Wren: Winter Wren is smaller and darker, with a shorter tail, and strongly-barred belly and flanks.