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Where are my house wrens??

13 years ago

We had two nest boxes full of babies fledge over a month ago and every day the parents would sit on the tops of the houses and sing all day long. They were such great company, sitting in the nearby trees, the shepherd's hooks or on top the houses just singing loudly day and night.

While we were gone for two weeks on vacation, my sister watched the house and fed the birds. She had to free a red tailed hawk from the bird netting protecting my raspberry plants by cutting the netting off her feet. Since then, she has seen a pair of hawks frequenting the property. The rabbit families have also disappeared.

Could the hawks have taken my lovely little wrens??

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Comments (4)

lisa11310
13 years ago
I would say your bunnies yes, your Wrens may have taken the babies somewhere safer with hawks in the area (also the surviving bunnies) I know lots of folks that would gladly give you their HOWRs.!
donald lucius
13 years ago
here i seldom get hawks or owls that stay around. but when i do most of the birds disappear for days or even weeks till the hawks move on. also i see the birds hide in thick foliage or trees and avoid the open spaces except quick flights from tree to tree.
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Gibby, house wrens and house sparrows are entirely different species. House sparrows are a non-native bird and are considered pests by many, thus are not protected by law. House wrens are native birds and it is illegal to tamper with their nests. I do not allow house wrens to nest in my boxes, however, because as you said they are can cause harm to the eggs and hatchlings of other cavity nesters. I remove any sticks I find in my nestboxes and, fortunately, have not come upon a completed house wren nest (or else I'd have to leave it alone). Since I monitor my nestboxes twice each week during nesting season I can usually catch early nesting attempts by wrens and stop them. You can find out more about both species at this link: www.sialis.org Kathy
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I tried several things like I made a brand new wren guard out of light cardboard so it was so obvious. I made it so I could tape back the front flap so she could see the hole...it looks like an extension of the roof. She STILL wouldn't go in. Daddy seemed a bit peeved with her. He'd go to the hole and move aside as if to make room for Mama to look in the hole with him there. There were lots of vocalizations between then. Again, she would go TO the hole but would not go in. The temps here have dropped from the 80s to the 60s so I guess I'm stuck. If she doesn't keep those eggs warm, there could be problems. I will be watching the video so I know when she goes out of the box. But I can't watch all day. Daddy Blue saw and chased the house wren several times so I guess we have to depend on him. As far as whether you have them, do you have a field guide? They have maps in there where you can see the range of birds. If you don't have one, I'll look it up in mine. Linda...
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Thanks for the replies - so far the House Wren has not touched the surviving two Baby Blues - and momma and Papa are taking care of them. However - I can hear the Wrens all around, and I also am removing sticks from the other boxes around the property. I should have tried a Wren guard - however I have never put one on - so was worried about the Blues not taking too it. But if they nest again, I will for sure try it - after the first egg is laid. One a side note - we have a dead tree in our back yard - that a wood pecker bored a hole in, and must now have a nest in it. I saw her chasing the wren a way - but her nest is pretty high up. Also - we have a Phoebe nesting under our overhang - this is her second year. I went and checked her eggs out - and there was a Cowbird egg in it! We also had two robins nest near our house - both nests were robbed of their eggs - I'm thinking the crows got at them. Unfortunately no Chickadee nests in our boxes this year.. but probably best because of the Wrens..... seems like they arrived early this year. So did the humming birds.
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nhblues
13 years ago
I would advise strongly against using black plastic netting and instead use tobacco netting. It may save the lives of many birds in the long run. I lost a male bluebird and cardinal in this type of netting. It was just awful and totally preventable, I was so sad about it for weeks. The tobacco netting I use is white plastic and although it may seem that less sun gets through, its actually fabulous for my berry plants. I use it for my blueberries. Its wonderful and no birds have gotten caught in it because they can easily see it.
luckyladyd
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks, everyone. I am hoping they will return after the hawks find other hunting grounds.

Thanks especially for the tip about black netting. I haven't seen tobacco netting. Is there anyplace you can recommend to buy it?

LL

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