I would never have thought such a tiny and cute bird could be such a ruthless predator. Just a Wren eat Wren world out there I suppose.
> On Jul 13, 2015, at 8:12 PM, Kay Niyo <k...@kayniyo.com> wrote: > > I learned the hard way in IA with my bluebird trails that both House Sparrows > and House Wrens are notorious for killing Eastern Bluebirds and other birds > in nest boxes. If you run a bluebird box trail in a state east of CO > (perhaps in eastern CO also), you have to pull out House Sparrow (not > protected) nests weekly and House Wren sticks (pulling out sticks only that > the male puts into several houses prior to nest building is legal). Never > put up a bluebird box anywhere near trees or the House Wrens will move in; > keep the boxes in the grasslands. The wrens drive the bluebirds out of the > box and build sticks and a nest on top of the now cold eggs. And they also > will pitch out bluebird eggs, nestlings, and kill nestlings in the boxes. > Then they stuff the house with sticks right over the bluebird nest and the > female wren builds a grass nest in the sticks. As shown in this thread, > wrens do the same thing to other species unfortunately. > > We had many bluebird predators in IA! When I moved to CO, I was amazed that > our bluebird trail in Elk Meadow in Evergreen rarely had trouble with any > predators. A very pleasant trail to care for! > > I tried putting up lots of boxes on my pine mt property above Evergreen to > try to keep the wren pair happy and accommodate the Mountain Chickadees and > Pygmy Nuthatches. That worked. So, maybe more boxes might be a solution. > > Kay > > Kayleen A. Niyo, Ph.D. > Niyo Scientific Communications > 5651 Garnet St. > Golden, CO 80403 > 303.679.6646 > k...@kayniyo.com; www.KayNiyo.com > > From: cobirds@googlegroups.com [mailto:cobirds@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of > markcha...@comcast.net > Sent: Monday, July 13, 2015 6:38 PM > To: gmlu...@comcast.net > Cc: cobirds@googlegroups.com > Subject: Re: [cobirds] Wren fatalities > > We had a situation happen this spring with this kind of behavior. We were > thrilled to have Red-breasted Nuthatches nesting in one of our boxes here in > Lakewood. I watched the activity as the birds went in and out of the box for > nearly two weeks. One morning, I heard the male calling over and over > outside of the box. The next day I noticed the wrens were inspecting the > nest. I grabbed a ladder and looked inside to find three pierced nestlings. > The nuthatches moved on and the wrens took over the box. We also had > Flickers nesting in a box to find their nestlings thrown about the yard and > Starlings in the box. We sealed up the hole with popsicle sticks to keep the > Starlings out. After much persistence the Starlings gave up but the Flickers > never returned. Nature is cruel!! > > Mark Chavez > Lakewood-Green Mtn > http://jaeger29.smugmug.com/ > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Luger <gmlu...@comcast.net> > To: cobirds@googlegroups.com > Sent: Mon, 13 Jul 2015 21:34:21 -0000 (UTC) > Subject: [cobirds] Wren fatalities > CObirders, I'm puzzled. Last month we hung a Wren box and got a tenant almost > immediately. This week for two days I watched a wren bugging and carrying > insects back to the box. Then yesterday I found a wriggling hatchling in > death throws on the ground beneath the box and another hatchling dead a > little further away on the ground covered with ants. The dead bird, though > further from the box, still had the shell with the body. Just above my head > there was a wren watching me from the house opening. The one still alive had > a tiny bloody hole on the back of its head that looked like a beak pinch mark > from where it was tossed from the box. > What the heck happened? Did the parent kill the hatchlings? Has anyone seen > this happen before? There is still a Wren coming and going but not with food. > Perplexed, > Myrna Luger > Across from Horsetooth Mtn Pk > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Colorado Birds" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/B2530B46-BED1-461D-AC66-3C55340E37F1%40comcast.net. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Colorado Birds" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/28946447.4786564.1436834296505.JavaMail.zimbra%40comcast.net. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. 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