Wren Species, Nevada, USA (1 Viewer)

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frejaya

Active member

• Mar 24, 2019

• #1

We saw this wren doing acrobatics and it was adorable.

Having trouble identifying it though...it looks like many different types of wrens, they're so similar!

We have a couple theories, maybe Bewick's, maybe Sedge, but want additional opinions.

 

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F

frejaya

Active member

• Mar 24, 2019

• #2

More pictures of more angles.

 

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S

snowstorm

Member

• Mar 24, 2019

• #3

I’m leaning towards Sedge Wren but I’d wait for some experts to chime in.

 

F

frejaya

Active member

• Mar 24, 2019

• #4

snowstorm said:

I’m leaning towards Sedge Wren but I’d wait for some experts to chime in.

Click to expand...

Thank you! We were leaning towards Sedge too...we'll see what other opinions people have

 

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fugl

Well-known member

• Mar 24, 2019

• #5

Where in Nevada? Sedge Wren would be a very rare bird anywhere in the state. This is a not-all-that-unusual case where a decent set of field notes—written or recorded—would be worth a thousand fuzzy photos.

 

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frejaya

Active member

• Mar 24, 2019

• #6

fugl said:

Where in Nevada? Sedge Wren would be a very rare bird anywhere in the state. This is a not-all-that-unusual case where a decent set of field notes—written or recorded—would be worth a thousand fuzzy photos.

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Clark County Wetlands Park at 12:11 PM. It didn't make a lot of noise, mostly just flopped around in the reeds with one foot on one reed and the other foot on another reed. We heard the reeds rustling and that drew our attention to it.

 

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fugl

Well-known member

• Mar 25, 2019

• #7

The expected species in that kind of habitat anywhere in Nevada would be Marsh Wren and that’s my best guess for your bird. A couple of your photos show whitish streaks on the back which eliminates Bewick’s Wren (though not Sedge unfortunately).

 

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birdmeister

Well-known member

• Mar 25, 2019

• #8

My first impression was of Marsh Wren, but I have nothing to prove definitively yes or no.

 

RafaelMatias

Unknown member

• Mar 25, 2019

• #9

The bill strikes me as a bit too long for Sedge Wren? The photos might not be ideal to judge this, but somehow it doesn't look right to me.
I have no experience with Marsh Wren, but I used to see Sedge on a daily basis on the Falkland Islands, as Sedge is common around the albatross colonies (on dense tussock grass) where I worked for some years.

 

Nutcracker

Stop Brexit!

• Mar 25, 2019

• #10

RafaelMatias said:

The bill strikes me as a bit too long for Sedge Wren? The photos might not be ideal to judge this, but somehow it doesn't look right to me.
I have no experience with Marsh Wren, but I used to see Sedge on a daily basis on the Falkland Islands, as Sedge is common around the albatross colonies (on dense tussock grass) where I worked for some years.

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South American 'Sedge Wren' has been split now (as Grass Wren: scroll about ⅓ down), so bill length of Falklands birds may not be relevant in this instance :t:

 

RafaelMatias

Unknown member

• Mar 25, 2019

• #11

Nutcracker said:

South American 'Sedge Wren' has been split now (as Grass Wren: scroll about ⅓ down), so bill length of Falklands birds may not be relevant in this instance :t:

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Thanks. I knew the split was coming, just didn't know it had been accepted. The various species were split based on molecular data (together with ecological supporting data). But the morphological study from 1988 (Traylor 1988) covering the South American taxa, has not taken into account bill length (relative or absolute), only the following:

The characters used were wing length; relative tail and tarsal lengths (tail/wing and tarsus/wing ratios); crown pattern (streaked or plain); extent of streaking on back; rump and lower back (called "rump" for convenience) pattern (plain, barred, or streaked); and rectrices, (whether the inner webs of pairs 2-5 are barred or washed with black).

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Perhaps because bill wasn't variable enough within SA? But no comparisons are made with the North American taxa.

In any case, the difference of bill structure (length) between Marsh and Sedge wrens is well illustrated in the Sibley guide (the longest billed Sedge should still be a relatively short-billed bird). The OP bird seems perhaps to be closer in bill length to Marsh, as illustrated in Sibley.

 

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tom baxter

Well-known member

• Mar 25, 2019

• #12

I am not picking up anything other than the expected marsh wren.

 

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frejaya

Active member

• Mar 26, 2019

• #13

Excellent, thank you so much everyone for the detailed opinions! This is really helpful and educational for us beginning birders! It helps a lot to know some of the markers that are distinctive. I've only seen a couple Marsh Wrens and they were so much darker with stronger colors than this one that it confused me!