Mom's wrens (Part 2)

General Description

By Jim Davis

The House Wren is our most common wren, breeding from coast to coast in southern Canada, and throughout the United States. In Alberta it is common in the southern half of the province, less so in the foothills and Rocky Mountains.

They are a neotropical migrant returning each fall to their wintering grounds in the Gulf of Mexico and Baja California. There is also a significant population of year round resident birds in Central, and South America. The preferred habitat is open woodlands with an understorey and thickets. Also adapts to human settlement with the use of nesting boxes.

The diet is insects, and this wren has an easy time of it in riparian thickets when the caddis are flying.

The male arriving earlier than the female, constructs a number of nests in cavities, thickets, or nesting boxes, with small sticks. The female selects a preferred site and lines the nest with finer material including bark, grass, feathers and hair. This prolific songster, a favourite backyard bird, while showing a preference for mid-storey to canopy nesting sites in urban areas with cats, also nests in thickets and cavities of stumps near ground level. The female lays 5-8 mottled red-brown-pink-white eggs which she incubates for 13 days. The young are tended by both parents until they leave the nest at 12-18 days, after which they may form a near nest clan for a while prior to separating. Two or sometimes three broods are produced. Another aggressive wren that drives off potential competitors. Older adult males sometimes tolerate a first year male within their territory while it learns the ropes of what is a suitable nesting territory.

Mom has watched over the wren house, fretting almost as much as the mother wren. (photo by John Eshelman)

A hungry little beak peeks out its front door. 

Some numbers

Ten Leading Causes of Death in the U.S.:

Heart Disease: 699,697;
Cancer: 553,251;
Stroke: 163,601;
Respiratory Disease: 123,974;
Accidents: 97,707;
Diabetes: 71,252;
Pneumonia/Influenza: 62,123;
Alzheimer's Disease: 53,679;
Nephritis and Nephrosis (kidney disease): 39,661;
Septicemia (blood poisoning): 32,275; and
Assault or Homicide (including terrorism at 14th): 16,775, including 9-11.
Terrorism alone would come in way down the list at 3,000 people.

LIGHTNING STATISTICS:
Over 1,000 people get struck by lightning every year in the US, and over 100 of them die as a result of the strike.

AIRLINE SAFETY STATISTICS:
1,028 fatalities in U.S. air traffic accidents from 1992 through 2001; the total worldwide was just under 7,000.

HOMICIDE STATISTICS:
This currently includes terrorist victims.
Deaths Annually: 16,765 (2000).
Age-Adjusted Death Rate: 6.1 deaths per 100,000 population (2000).
115,000 homicides by firearms from Jan. 1, 1991 through Dec. 31, 2000.

ACCIDENTAL DEATH:
Deaths Annually: 97,902 (2000).
Death Rate: 35.6 deaths per 100,000 (2000).
Cause of Death Rank: 5 (2000).
Motor Vehicle Deaths: 43,354 (2000).

Knowing the statistics, we can make a threat assessment of death by terrorist attack:

Terrorist attack is 2 or 3 times more likely to take a life than lightning, averaged over the past 10 years. But you are 10 times more likely to be struck by lightning.

The chance of being killed by a firearm is 38 times greater than by a terrorist attack.

Accidental death is 323 times more likely.
Automobile accident alone is 137 times more likely.
Your chance of death by disease is 8,000 times greater.
Your chances of dying in an airplane accident in the USA are one-third the chance of death by terrorist attack.

Take a cool, rational look at these dangers that confront us and the resources we have to fight them. Pretend that you are in charge of making a decision in your own community of 100,000 people, and you have a billion dollars to spend protecting them with the following probable benefits. What do you choose?

You can extend 4,000 lives if spent on disease prevention.
You can extend 323 lives if spent on accident prevention.
You can extend 38 lives if spent on homicide prevention.
You can extend 1 life if spent on terrorism prevention .
You can extend .3 lives if spent on lightning prevention or aircraft safety.

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