Attracting wrens is a major coup for most gardeners. Why? Besides their adorable, curious natures and their distinct high-pitched, bubbly voices, these small, plain brown birds have one particularly endearing quality: they eat insects! This makes them one of the most popular guests to backyards across North America.
Commonly called the house wren, this bird is attracted to suburban yards, man-made birdhouses, brush piles, low tree branches and clusters of bushes. These are perfect for habitat and provide protection from the elements; also because those dense, low-lying areas provide great insect hunting. Once they’re in your yard, wrens become an ideal form of natural pest control.
Attracting Wrens: Meet Three Basic Needs
To attract wrens to your property, you only need to supply three things: food, clean water, and shelter. The food is in abundant supply in most natural areas in the form of insects like grasshoppers, spiders, crickets, flies, beetles, and caterpillars. You can make a birdbath or clean pond available to them as a source of drinking water and a place to splash their feathers. Wren houses provide shelter and come in a wide variety of styles, sizes, and colors. What they have in common is the opening size. It is typically about one inch, which will allow entry by wrens but not larger birds.
A House for a Wren
Wrens are attracted to houses made of almost any material, wood, or plastic. Wren houses can be hung from low-lying tree branches, posts, outbuildings, the side of a house, or even from a rose bush. They sometimes even have roughened interior floors. This gives the birds traction as they enter, and emulates tree bark.
Since birds aren’t known for housekeeping skills, look for easy-opening, low-maintenance wren houses for your yard or birding sanctuary. Make sure you have access to the birdhouse interior, so you can keep it clean. Regular removal of dropped feathers or dirt that the birds might have tracked in will keep your wren house a welcoming, quiet place to rest for future visitors.
Remember, it can take some time for word to get out and for the local wrens to discover your yard. Make it as attractive as possible to bring as many of these insect-eating beneficial songbirds to your yard.
We hope you enjoy the music!
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By Dan Heims, President, Terra Nova Nurseries, Inc.
Photographs courtesy of Terra Nova Nurseries, Inc.
Terra Nova’s breeders have created a series of outstanding world-class echinaceas that are consistent in size, bloom power, color intensity and are a pollinator buffet. What’s not to like.
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