The Boys Are Back in Town!

The first male house wren has returned! How do I know that a male has returned? First you can listen for them. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a good recording of what a typical male house wren song: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/House_Wren/id. Only the male sings the typical song that birders identify. The females only make chirping noises but do not sing a song per se.

Back to recognizing the males have returned. For me, it is easier to check to see if a male has claimed a box in his territory. The males will start to create the base of the nest by putting sticks in the box. The boxes start out empty so if I find sticks in a box, that means a male is around.


Here is a close up of the sticks the male has placed in the box.

He will continue to fill the box to his desired height for the nest. The height depends on the male. Out of my 68 territories, only 1 male has returned. I think the varying weather has slowed their journey from the south down. I'm predicting they are about 1 week late.

A shot from the top of the box.

Putting Up the Condos

Well...all of the wren houses are up now. Thanks to a few people. Above from left to right is Raffica LaRosa (Gobles GK12 Fellow), Brook Wilke (Martin GK12 previous Fellow), and Emily Grman (Lawton GK12 Fellow). Below is Melissa Kjelvik (Comstock GK12 Fellow).


It was a beautiful weekend. At Lux Arbor, I monitor 68 different house wren territories. We put 3 nest boxes (wren houses) at each territory. That's 204 nest boxes total!

Raffica is working hard attaching a nest box to one of the poles. We have to get these boxes up by next weekend. The male house wrens arrive first in mid-April. The females arrive later in late-April. They start pairing up right away and begin to lay eggs early May.

The house wrens finish their migration here in Michigan but it begins down south. The house wrens winter near the Gulf of Mexico. It takes them a couple months to make the entire journey north.

Hi Everyone! Welcome to the Wren House. This is a blog that follows my doctoral research on House Wrens. Check in from time to time to see what's new. We'll follow one family once the birds return to Michigan and get settled in. Please post lots of questions and I will do my best to answer them.

This is a picture of a nest box: the Wren House. This is where the house wren will make their nest. House wrens are cavity nesters. This means they need some sort of hollow structure to begin building their nest. You won't find them building a nest on a tree branch like Robins.