Bewick's Wren visiting

It took me about a year to figure out what bird this is.

And now I hear and see these chattering birds, Bewick's wrens, all the time.

They are medium sized wrens with a long white stripe that starts over their eye and extends further back.

They have long tails that are often kept upright.

These birds, once common throughout the US, have now almost completely disappeared east of the Mississippi River, and their population is also declining in parts of the western US. Their numbers may be declining due to agricultural pesticide use and competition with House Wrens, House Sparrows, European Starlings and Song Sparrows.

We are so happy that the Bewick's wrens are doing well in our neighborhood.

Each year a couple of these wrens make a nest and raise a family of four or five babies in our next door neighbors' tree next to our fence. The fledglings then visit and forage in our garden beds and plants around the patio.

The Bewick's wren here was very curious about strawberry plants growing in a planter on a table.