House Wrens: The most efficient backyard hunters around (Arapahoe)

[Jared Del Rosso]

My backyard in Centennial (Arapahoe) is in shambles. Heat, drought, and insects have wildflowers falling in exhaustion. Blooms are misshapen, tiny, or absent. Plants are a third, sometimes half as tall as they were last year. The seeds of last year’s six-foot tall sunflowers and Rocky Mountain Bee Plant have grown into 2-foot tall plants with unremarkable flowers. 

Amid all of this, families of birds are doing their family of bird things. Black-capped Chickadees and Spotted Towhees have doubled in number recently. A spotted and streak-faced robin is hunting like an adult.

One morning, two or three days ago, it was practically a Disney movie out there. A rabbit ran past a flicker pair, as the two woodpeckers bobbed their heads at each other from the edge of a wildflower. An adult towhee bathed in my bird bath as robins pulled earthworms from the ground. A squirrel pair chased each other. Chickadees raced around the honeylocust.

But it's the House Wrens that most impress me this time of year. A large family (6? 8?) has been inspecting every opening, corner, and edge for prey. Plunging into the tangles and darkness of stick piles, a Bagster full of yard waste, even overlap in garden fabric, they do their genus—Troglodytes*, the Cave Dwellers—proud. They're remarkably proficient. About as often as not, I see them with something in their bill. I've seen a moth for sure, but usually it's some indistinct blob to my eyes (I usually don't have my binoculars or camera with me).

I know we reserve the title of “Bird of Prey” for those who hunt larger fare, but there’s not an eagle, hawk, or falcon as capable as a parent wren.

- Jared Del Rosso

Centennial, CO

lonesomewhippoorwill.com

* Troglodytes is also something of an insult when applied to people. (The link here directs to Merriam-Webster.)