The Great Bird Confab...

...this post continues the house-hunting adventures of the Tree Swallow couple from the previous post (click here for the first installment). With the endless discussing, twittering and scolding going back and forth between these two swallows and the two angry little House Wrens, this "episode" is called The Great Bird Confab. It truly looked like a mighty discussion was taking place...pros and cons were being discussed by the swallows, and threats and barbs were being thrown all over the place between the swallows and the wrens...

A male and a female yearling Tree Swallow twitter back and forth at the entrance of a very popular nesting cavity! Female yearling Tree Swallows retain the brown color of their youth. As yearlings they have only a hint of the sparkling metallic blue and green feathers they will sport next season.  

House Wrens can sound a bit raucous even when they are happy, but when their ire has been raised, they are little hellions. This angry wren was vigorously defending her nesting cavity...

House Wrens often steal nesting cavities from other birds (and will even kill nestlings and larger birds to evict them), but this time, I think they were there first. Just below the hole the swallows were interested in was a downstairs entrance that was bursting with twigs--evidence that a House Wren had been working there and had already set up camp. House Wren nests are twiggy and look uncomfortable, but within the twigs they create a soft cup often filled with feathers from other birds. 

...meanwhile, these two continue to discuss the possibilities...

...weighing the pros and the cons...

...and who knows what else.

I think I'm being told to kindly butt out, take my camera elsewhere, move on, ride out on the horse I rode in on, or maybe I'm just being asked..."Do you mind?" It's an unnerving glare to say the least... 

Angry bird...
The wrens would come in close and scold, then fly back a bit and sit. Then come back in, scolding and chiding. I saw no physical contact, but things were heating up.

Seething bird...

...the swallows look like they are sniping at each other, but really, their singing back and forth was beautiful, musical and sweet--a quick jumble of fluid notes that was wonderful to listen to.

The female enters the nest again, and the story continues... 

There were a lot of photos to wade through here...sorry! I was going to choose just the best and post them in one entry, but since it's sometimes difficult to see Tree Swallows up close, I decided to post several of the photos to show the varied expressions, head tilts, and postures of the tree swallows. Artists can feel free to use the photos in this trilogy (another episode is coming) as references to study postures, plumage, etc.


These photos were all taken on May 7, 2012 at Magee Marsh in Toledo, Ohio. I was at the Biggest Week in American Birding festival. This is part two of a three-part series:

Click here for part 1 (focuses on a yearling female at the nesting cavity).
Click here for part 3 (closeups of a male Tree Swallow)

House Wrens feeding nestlings...

...House Wren babies! A sweet House Wren couple has taken up residence in our yard and is working tirelessly to feed their demanding brood of nestlings. Their nestbox is located in the plum tree in our side yard. We can hear their constant bubbly chatter throughout the house. Earlier in the season, I watched the male bringing little twigs to the nest box regularly and was hopeful a female would choose it as their abode (at the beginning of the nesting season male House Wrens build several nests hoping to catch a female's eye). After a while, I noticed two little House Wrens buzzing around, bringing nesting material to the nest box, and I kept my fingers crossed that the female would lay eggs and they would hatch out...and they did!
 

House Wrens feeding nestlings in their nestbox from Kelly Riccetti on Vimeo.

A video of the House Wrens in our yard bringing insects and spiders home to the nestlings. Every time mama or papa would enter the nestbox, the babies would erupt in frantic chatter, "food, food!"

House Wren (Troglodytes aedon)
We love listening to their constant chatter and scolding. 

...the parents developed a flight pattern going to and from their "hunting grounds," which are a part of our yard I let go wild. Seems like there are easy "pickins" there, and the wrens preferred the weed patch to any other part of the yard. It's fun to watch them fly into the weed patch, glean an insect, and fly back using the same route to the nest box (calling out the whole time...).  

...such a fierce little House Wren!
Actually...House Wrens really are ferocious fighters. This little male successfully fought off repeated attempts of a House Sparrow to usurp the nestbox, and a little Carolina Chickadee had designs on the digs too, but the House Wren talked him out of it.  

I hope the little family survives their nestbox time. Raccoons are in our area, and they sometimes raid nestboxes. This one is well protected, hanging from a branch on a tree, but you never know with raccoons...

Update 
Our little wren family survived...the fledglings flew the coop and moved on to the big, wide world!

A homely little House Wren? (BPW #49)

Birding Hocking Hills in Southeastern Ohio

...continued from the Eastern Towhee post.

This little bird was anything but homely when he started singing, and when you add in mama and three juveniles, you really have a show! While I was watching Common Yellowthroats in the meadow in front of me, a family of House Wrens started acting up in the trees along the bank of Clear Creek behind me. They were all making a clamor, singing and shaking and flitting all over the place, cute—and noisy—as can be.

"I'm a wren...and I love to sing...and I have

such a pretty song, so I'll sing some more!"

"But I can also make a ruckus with non-stop

scolding...and it's not quite as pretty!"

In Lang Elliot’s book “Music of the Birds, a Celebration of Birdsong,” Elliot includes a quote by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow from his epic poem “Evangeline” (1847) that he feels could have been written about the song of a House Wren (in the poem, Longfellow attributes the song to a mockingbird):

“…from a neighboring thicket the wildest of singers, swinging aloft on a willow spray that hung over the water, shook from his little throat such floods of delirious music that the whole air and woods and waves seemed silent to listen.”

Standing about 15 feet from this little family, I was amazed at how much noise they could make. I think Longfellow's poem better describes a House Wren too. With all their singing, shaking, and moving all around, they were very fun to watch!

Mama and papa had taught the babies well, because the entire family was gleaning insects and spiders from the undersides of leaves, but every now and then papa would feed a baby still.

"I see...a spider!"

...perfect insect-gleaning form!