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Thursday, April 08, 2010

Winter Wren

Is this a candidate for the cutest bird? I think so. Winter Wrens are pocket-sized balls of feathers with super-sized songs that are so long they seem to go on forever.
We were recently walking the Corgis on a path in deep Hemlock woods that had a small pond, when we heard this melodic, bubbling, energetic, trilling, very long song, which we knew was unmistakably the sound of a Winter Wren. This is the spot and the habitat where we have heard Winter Wrens for years.
This species has just been split into two species (one mostly in the East and one in the West) by the AOU checklist committee. Stay tuned for what their agreed upon common names will be.

3 comments:

MCM Voices said...

Beautiful photograph (of course). Will never forget a comment on this bird's song by John Krebs: "The winter wren's song has so much coloratura it makes Rossini's 'Una voce poco fa' sound like a Gregorian chant!" LOL. [not sure I agree, but it cracks me up just the same. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmEFfeYRWeI to hear Beverly Sills give the Winter Wren a run for its money. Especially at about 3 minutes into the video]

Phebe said...

Last week I saw my first brown headed nuthatch. That's a pretty cute bird, too!

Stephanie said...

I agree - definitely one of the cutest!