Bird Wars

Those sweet little birds with their cheerful songs also have a dark side when it is time to reproduce. Then all is fair in love and war and reproduction. I've been seeing some evidence of this, this spring and summer in my two nest boxes. Below is some of the drama. See if you can follow along.

It all started at the beginning of May when a wren started to build a nest in Box A.
The twigs and white spots are typical of wren nests.

At the same time, a nest was beginning in Box B. It looked like a bluebirds nest
which is typified by the use of only one material in building the nest. 

Three weeks later, the nest in Box A had been lined with grass and feathers and had 6 eggs in it. Notice the cup toward the back, the sticks and white spider sac under the lining. All typical of a wren's nest.

A couple of days later, the Box A nest had no eggs in it. Not a trace of the six eggs anywhere. ( I didn't get a picture of the empty nest.)

Then I checked Box B and there was a dead wren in it. Ward removed both the bird and the nest. (I did not take a picture of the dead bird. This picture is of another house wren in the yard.)

A few days later, a new nest was built in Box B like the old one. It was not a wren's nest, but it was filled with 7 wren eggs. Meanwhile, Box A continued to have an empty wren's nest.

At least six out of the seven eggs in Box B hatched and fledged. The mother/father wren was very noisy anytime I approached the nest.

Two weeks later Box A, with the wren's nest in it, has five new eggs. Currently, the mother is sitting on them. We'll see what happens.

Were you able to keep track of all of that? Let's just say that for now, the wren's are winning. This drama was mild compared to what we watched last year. I won't go into it, but let's just say, bird wars are not for the faint of heart.

But Wait, There's More:

This may explain some of the things we saw last year and this year. 

• A House Wren weighs about as much as two quarters, but it’s a fierce competitor for nest holes. Wrens will harass and peck at much larger birds, sometimes dragging eggs and young out of a nest site they want – even occasionally killing adult birds. In some areas they are the main source of nest failure for bluebirds, Tree Swallows, Prothonotary Warblers, and chickadees.

From All About Birds