BirdOculars.com

House Wren House Cleaning

I was looking out my window yesterday and I saw something peculiar.  One of the house wrens was going in and out their nestbox.  That’s not strange given that I knew they had babies in there.  It wasn’t until I took a closer look that I found they were not taking food in to the house but taking nesting material out of it.

I Needed Professional Help Again

I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why either of the house wrens would be basically tearing up and throwing out their nesting material.  I felt pretty confident at that point that the babies had fledged but I couldn’t figure out why or how they were going to remove the nest.

So, I emailed Julie Zickefoose to see if she could give me some insight.  I was especially keen to know if I should be helping them.  As usual, she had the info I was looking for in an instant.

Replacing A Bed And Not Renovating

Julie told me that what I was observing was the female wren removing the soft nesting materials which would be soiled and replacing them with new.  The male house wren places twigs in a box and the female puts the softer materials if she likes the nest.  She said the female is in a hurry to start a new brood and that’s how they do it.  She also told me that under no circumstances should I remove anything because they might abandon the nest and go looking for trouble elsewhere in my backyard.  Say, for instance, the other bluebird box.

So, I’m just going to let the wrens handle the box cleaning and repopulation.

Thanks, Julie, for saving me and the wrens a whole lot of grief.