5 things you might not know about the wren
The wren is one of the smallest birds in Britain, and one of the most surprising. Only the firecrest and goldcrest are smaller.
1. It weighs about the same as a £1 coin
An adult wren weighs around ten grams and is just nine to ten centimetres long. Its scientific name, Troglodytes, means hole-dweller, which suits a bird that spends so much time creeping through hedges and brambles. Despite its size its song is remarkably loud and carries much further than you would expect.
2. The male builds the homes, the female chooses
A male builds several dome-shaped nests in his territory, known as cock nests, from moss, grass and leaves. The female inspects them, picks one and lines only that one with feathers. A male has been recorded with four females breeding on his territory at once.
3. More than sixty can sleep in one nest box
In winter wrens roost together, because they are so small they lose heat fast and cannot store much fat. In a tight space they squat on top of one another, heads in and tails towards the entrance. More than sixty have been recorded in a single box, including 61 in a Norfolk nest box in the winter of 1969. They arrive soon after sunset and leave before dawn, and the resident male starts the roost by calling and making short flights. A very cold winter can cut the population by as much as a quarter.
4. A wren has flown 1,500 kilometres
The longest ringing recovery of a wren was 1,524 kilometres, from Kaliningrad on the Baltic coast to Bosham in West Sussex. Most British wrens stay put all year, but Swedish wrens have been recorded travelling up to 2,500 kilometres to escape freezing weather.
5. It was on the farthing
From 1937 until 1960 the British farthing, our smallest coin, carried a wren, because it was thought to be Britain's smallest bird. It isn't: that title belongs to the goldcrest, with the firecrest next and the wren third. Today there are an estimated seven million wren territories in the UK, making it one of our most abundant birds.
A little wren folklore
Wren Day is an Irish tradition held on St Stephen's Day, 26 December, when costumed wren boys would parade through the streets carrying a captured wren and collecting money. Today a fake wren is used, but the festival still takes place in parts of Ireland, and was once common across the British Isles, Spain and France.
Aristotle and Plutarch called the wren the king of the birds, and so did the druids. In one Greek story the birds held a contest to see who could fly highest. The eagle soared above them all, until a clever wren hidden under his wing popped out at the last second and flew a little higher.
Another tale, said to be more local, tells of a robin and a wren flying into hell to fetch fire for villagers who had left them water in a bitter winter. It earned them the rhyme: The robin redbreast and the wren, are God Almighty's cock and hen.
What wrens like to eat, and where
Wrens hunt for spiders and insects under bushes and in hedges. Scatter a little of our seasonal bird food near the base of a hedge or under a feeder and they'll go for the suet pellets, and fill a Little Lantern seed feeder with it for the other birds. They will also use a nest box, so leave one up through the winter. If you are not sure which feeder suits your garden, our feeding quiz will point you in the right direction.
Want to keep track of the wrens in your garden? Amidst the Birdsong: A Garden Birdwatcher's Journal is made for exactly that.
Want to read about more garden birds? See all the birds in this series.
