This my friends is a nest of a House Wren...it's amazing to watch these small birds haul in several wooden twigs and sticks to make their intricate nests....this box I hung about 8 feet off of the ground under a branch...the box is a slotted version that I made more for the purpose of attracting Eastern Bluebirds more than House Wrens...no sooner had I put this box up did I notice the activity...I suspect this House Wren to also be the culprit that destroyed my Carolina Chickadee eggs about a week earlier...before I could remove the nesting material eggs had been laid...this is a protected native species and must not be disturbed once they lay eggs....the picture you see here is either left over eggs from the first brood or a second laying of eggs for a second brood which is not uncommon...I actually brought this nestbox down to clean out the nesting material and box....What amazes me the most about this nest is how the Wren used the material to provide extra protection toward the front of the box...and may have created it's own ladder because the box is made to be a deep cavity....notice the pictures of the front of the box and when I open the door where the top of the nest is in relation to the bottom of the slot....
Now to compare this type of Wren nest to a Carolina Wren nest....I watched as two little Carolina Wrens brought material back and forth for two days to this hanging plant...a Fuchsia...this Fuchsia plant is well over 5 years old and has been host to at least three successful broods of little Carolina Wren...one day a couple of years ago I went to check the nest and got a face full of a baby Carolina Wrens...after chasing him around bushes, under vehicles and finally cornering the little sucker in my garage...carefully placed him in the nest...it jumped out and flew off into some neighboring bushes....what a waste of energy...but I am sure if any neighbors were watching they had some great entertainment for that 30 minutes I chased the bird around...hahahahahaha.....
Notice that this nest is a cavity but made with sticks and grasses and is totally encapsulated with a small entrance hole...I often have to water these plants and usually do so with a fine misting spray from a micro irrigation system...it's amazing how seemingly water proof the interior of one of these nests are...this nest was built but has not been inhabited since...and I haven't seen much from the two Carolina Wrens in over a week or so...they either have built this nest and for some reason been dissuaded from using it...or have nested elsewhere...or one or both have been preyed upon....the first year I had a nest in this plant I left the nest after the little Wrens had fledged...and I noticed an unhatched egg there...when I cleared it out early the next spring in February...the egg was still there...I wanted to save the nest with the egg in it and put it in some kind of craft...
but I carelessly laid it on the ground where my doggie Blue decided he wanted to investigate it...tearing it completely apart...when I noticed he looked up at me with them big eyes and tongue hanging out as if to say...."What!"....
Birdman Blue
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