Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.

On two consecutive mornings in March 2024, I watched two Bewick’s wrens inspect the funky little bird house hanging on our back fence. Would they select it as a suitable nesting box? My sons were hopeful. Ultimately, the wrens decided on a different site. The birdhouse in question was a gift for my sons from a family member; when my boys received it, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I told them the kit was clearly designed by folks who don’t know much about birds, but, if we got lucky, Bewick’s wrens might appreciate it – that was the only species I could imagine using the small box, even with the alterations I made. Yet, year after year, wrens have turned up their beaks at it.

Fortunately, Bewick’s wrens don’t rely on suburban yard nesting boxes. Although I often see them flitting along our fence line in search of tasty insect morsels or spidering in our yard’s rock walls, I encounter wrens most often on the 20 acres of California oak woodland I steward nine miles north of our home. There, I delighted in watching newly fledged wrens hop through oak and madrone branches this spring. Away from human habitation, wrens nest in abandoned woodpecker cavities or nooks in exposed rock. In more settled areas, wrens will use everything from odd containers forgotten in sheds to human-made bird houses. A study in British Columbia found 47% of the observed Bewick’s wrens nesting in cavities/containers in barns, sheds, and garages, whereas 40% were in tree cavities. The rest nested in power line poles and unused automobiles.

Wrens are perhaps best known for their attractive voice. Young males learn their songs from neighboring territory holders, and the songs of one species will differ markedly depending on where you are in the wren’s range. Even within one region, the song will be subtly distinct. Hooray for regional dialects!

Bewick’s wren populations are doing well in the west, but there have been significant declines east of the Mississippi. In fact, in all states in which the species occurs east of the great river, these wrens are now considered either endangered or threatened. Researchers believe that the addition of so many wren nesting boxes may have caused the decline; all those nesting boxes allowed the house wren (Troglodytes aedon) to expand its range, and the house wrens have a habit of destroying Bewick’s wren nests or removing/destroying the eggs in them. Oy vey for unintended consequences!

Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).

Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.