Canon City Winter/Pacific Wrens

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Brandon Percival

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Jan 12, 2015, 11:10:19 PM1/12/15

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If anyone happens to get photos of any of the wrens along the western part of the Canon City river walk in Fremont County, I would like to see them. I saw Joey Kellner's photo of a Winter Wren from Saturday. His photo is a different bird than the bird I photographed on Dec 21st. I think the bird I thought was a Pacific Wren on the 21st, isn't for sure one. It wasn't as orange on throat as the Valco Ponds in Pueblo bird from a few years ago, so I'm not sure if it really is a Pacific or not. Colorado seems to get a lot of odd stub tail wrens. Sounds like there might be several Winter type Wrens along the Canon City River walk. I am starting not to like these birds very much.

Hopefully mid April is coming soon, so I can look for warblers that aren't usually as confusing as these silly stub tail wrens are.

Brandon K. Percival
Pueblo West, CO

Chris Knight

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Jan 14, 2015, 10:30:07 AM1/14/15

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Having observed this bird with Brandon on 12/21 my thoughts are leaning more towards Pacific Wren than Winter and call was definitely Pacific Wren. I didn't get a good look at the throat, but it didn't appear to be whitish. In 40+ years of off and on birding I've seen several Winter Wrens and this bird was noticeably darker/distinct from these. Brandon's photo (taken in overcast conditions) seems to show a lighter throat on this bird, but certainly not a lighter "bib" blending into light brown like many Winter Wrens. This bird's breast seemed darker than Winter Wren.

Now, comparing Brandon's 12/21 photos with Ebird photos could lead one to believe there's a Winter Wren "grandparent" in this bird's ancestry. And, with Brandon also questioning the bird, I moved my report on Ebird into the "Pacific/Winter Wren" catagory just to err on the safe side.

There was a discussion about this time a year ago of a similar bird that was observed at Walden Ponds. I believe it was decided by most the bird was a Winter Wren. I believe also someone theorized the existence of a "tweener" population of Rocky Mountain individuals with characteristics of both Pacific and Winter which sounds plausible. Unlike the Walden Ponds observations, the Canon City observations are complicated by at least two other Stub-tailed Wrens in the immediate area.