Attracting Wrens

[Tammie]

Hello Forum!

I was wondering if anyone could give me tips on how to bring wrens into my yard. I'm told that you don't do it so much with food as you do with houses or nest boxes. Can anyone give me suggestions on how to go about this? According to my bird guide book, I should have house and winter wrens in this area but I've never seen either one before.
Suggestions on design and placement/direction of houses would be greatly appreciated! :)

[Michael Frankis]

Try big heaps of brushwood and piles of old logs - anything with crevices that they can get down and hide in and search for spiders, etc. The latin name Troglodytes means 'cave-dweller', and they certainly like holes!

Michael

[marting]

Here in Portsmouth Ive been trying to attract Wrens into my house for years :king:

[LezH]

I understand their tails are very often cocked, Martin.

[mkdon]

Hello,
First of all, put up wren houses. The hole shold be 1 to 1 and 1/4 inches in diameter. They should be from 4 to 10 feet above the ground. They may hang from a tree branch or be on a post. You should put up more than one. A male trying to attract a female will built nests (of sticks) in more than one spot. It could be four or more. Then he will begin to sing that beautiful bubbly song. When a female arrives, he will show her each nest. If she is shown a site that she likes, she will tear up the nest and build one to her own desires. Yes, I know. It does sound familiar. If you have bluebirds, they will have their boxes invaded by wrens, so be careful about having both types of boxes. I will attach a picture of one of my wren boxes to another post in your thread so you can have a look. It is nothing fancy. I started to hear a male in the yard last week so maybe something will happen. Good Luck !

[mkdon]

Here is my wren house that I promised. Good Luck.

[Tammie]

Thanks so much for the picture and advice. I appreciate it. And good luck with yours as well!

[KCFoggin]

Michael is correct regarding the wood piles. A portion of my back deck has firewood resting on it and I can always count on seeing one or two wrens poking around in and out of the wood pile. In fact I have a photo of one on a stack of cleared limbs in the middle of a lot I came across.

[Tammie]

So KC, where's the picture?! ;)
We have wood piled in the backyard all year round for the woodstove (no, we don't use the stove all year round, we're just prepared!) but I've only ever seen juncos around it.
I'm trying to talk my husband into NOT throwing out twigs and stuff from brush cutting but he's not too keen on having a 'mess' in public view! :(

[Draco]

http://www.americanartifacts.com/smma/per/b11a.htm

[Tero]

I have no wren houses, but there are wrens around the house pretty much all summer. The neighborhood has quite a few, and I imagine they have it divided up. People have lots of bushes and ornamental small trees in suburbia.

Yesterday I put some more bird feed in a hanging feeder. Sparrows came, then a Carolina Wren. I presume the bird was just bossing around, checking that the bird feeder was not a bird house. Mostly it sat on the roof of the feeder.

[Ruby]

I agree with Michael - whenever we see wrens in our garden they are always poking around in piles of dead vegetation, walls with ivy, stacks of logs etc etc.

They like overgrown spots where they can seek insects and are often not seen very far from the ground.

Hope you have some luck, Tammie...


Ruby

[dylan]

Originally posted by marting
Here in Portsmouth Ive been trying to attract Wrens into my house for years :king:

3:-)