(NGC) - Help on a bird ID

[Gliderjohn]

Have not seen these before and they are nesting in a box attached to our garden shed. Possibly a Carolina or Brenwick Wren? Size wise kind of like a slim sparrow.






GliderJohn

[oldbike54]

Have not seen these before and they are nesting in a box attached to our garden shed. Possibly a Carolina or Brenwick Wren? Size wise kind of like a slim sparrow.






GliderJohn

 That bird is known in serious bird watching circles as a little brown job 

 Maybe a Bewick Wren .

 Dusty

[Gliderjohn]

That bird is known in serious bird watching circles as a little brown job

Hey, hey, hey, don't forget this is a family friendly site. Go moderate yourself into a corner. 
GliderJohn

[cliffrod]

based upon the white eye bar, my wife says its a Carolina Wren.  the only other option is a House Wren, but the white eye bar is more likely to be a Carolina Wren.

My cat disagrees- she says it's a delicious bird....

Edit- if it's a Bewick Wren, it should have a white tip on tail feathers which would differentiate it from a Carolina Wren.  She would have tutored me more before the first post, but she had to put her opossum away so I had to look it up on my own....

[Scout63]

I have no idea but my wife says it is cute.

[Guzzistajohn]

We have them here, I just call it a wren. But I'm no ornithologist, and I'm too lazy to look in my Audubon field guide.

[jrt]

A friend of mine is an ornithologist.  Even he calls them LBJ's (little brown jobs). 
But that one, friend, is a Carolina wren.  We have a family of them that have lived in our back yard (St. Louis) for over a decade. 
If you find their nest and after the eggs hatch, it is a 'slow burn' sort of fun to watch mom and dad fetch insects.  Like every minute to minute and a half they fly out and back with something.  Makes me appreciate how well they do population control.

[oldbike54]

 Pretty sure this is not a Carolina Wren , the coloration and markings are more like a Bewick Wren , my sister is an avid birdwatcher and identifies it as a Berwick . Now , she might be wrong here , but of the hundreds of birds she has helped me identify , sometimes spending hours poring thru the giant Audubon society book , and at times making phone calls and E mail inquiries , she is rarely off on her ID's . Of course neither Wren is common in John's part of Kansas , but the Bewick's range is somewhat closer than the Carolina's , on a windy day with a good strong South wind blowing as is common out here , a Bewick could step out the front door in OKC and end up at John's place and never flap a wing 

 Dusty

[cliffrod]

I'm/we're not 100% sold on the Carolina Wren ID, either but are less confident on the Bewick wren.  I don't think the body coloring is appropriate for a Carolina Wren, but the missing white tip on tail feathers is the basis for my call.  She and her family are very serious birders, especially her parents, but not as fluent about what's in John's part of the USA vs the Appalachians & east coast.   Most of what I know about birds is how to properly clean, fabricate & cook them...

Region & Locale means less re: typical species than years ago.  We've had a pair of scissor tail flycatchers spending summers in the pastures/margins next to our house here in SC for the last few summer.  I doubted what they were when I first saw them, knowing they're normally very far west of here.  But that's what they are & apparently they're real celebrities for area bird watchers.  Now we're watching to see if they'll be back this summer.

[oldbike54]

I'm/we're not 100% sold on the Carolina Wren ID, either but are less confident on the Bewick wren.  I don't think the body coloring is appropriate for a Carolina Wren, but the missing white tip on tail feathers is the basis for my call.  She and her family are very serious birders, especially her parents, but not as fluent about what's in John's part of the USA vs the Appalachians & east coast.   Most of what I know about birds is how to properly clean, fabricate & cook them...

Region & Locale means less re: typical species than years ago.  We've had a pair of scissor tail flycatchers spending summers in the pastures/margins next to our house here in SC for the last few summer.  I doubted what they were when I first saw them, knowing they're normally very far west of here.  But that's what they are & apparently they're real celebrities for area bird watchers.  Now we're watching to see if they'll be back this summer.

 That's why bird watching is interesting , and why in certain bird families positive ID can be not so easy . To properly identify some birds it is helpful to have pictures with their wings extended also , in this case all we have are the two shots with folded wings . Even specific mating or feeding habits can be used . Our dinosaur friends are fun and interesting to observe , some of them are in direct lineage to creatures from millions of years long , some are a little more recent .

 Kinda makes you wonder if their really ancient ancestors like the T-Rex hopped about in a somewhat random fashion , chirping instead pf roaring 

 Dusty

[Ncdan]

Wife is a bird watcher and she says it’s a Wren and she ain’t never wrong😉

[cliffrod]

That's why bird watching is interesting , and why in certain bird families positive ID can be not so easy . To properly identify some birds it is helpful to have pictures with their wings extended also , in this case all we have are the two shots with folded wings . Even specific mating or feeding habits can be used . Our dinosaur friends are fun and interesting to observe , some of them are in direct lineage to creatures from millions of years long , some are a little more recent .

 Kinda makes you wonder if their really ancient ancestors like the T-Rex hopped about in a somewhat random fashion , chirping instead pf roaring 

 Dusty

Yup, I'm about as interested in birds as the inlaws are about motorcycles...  They travel all over, always with binoculars around necks or within reach, listen to Bird song recordings for hours on end to identify what they can hear but can't see.   I like seeing the Toehees around here.  The big Flicka that would do the machine-gun batatatatattt on the trusses in my studio hasn't been around for a while. We had a big pair of owls talking to each other in the trees out back at dusk earlier this year- very, very cool.  Couldn't confirm ID between Barred or Great Horned owls by sight or call.   Hearing a screech owl at night isn't uncommon but big owls are a treat.  Ospreys and bald eagles are nearby once in a while.

Bobwhite quail are all but gone- haven't heard them down back in years.  There's a reintroduction effort going, but hard to find people willing to do it who actually own the right land/habitat.  Wife works part time with local Soil & Water Commission and still has challenges connecting the right dots with that program.

[Mike Craven]

That's the dang bird that makes a nest in my helmet when I leave the garage door open!

[oldbike54]

 

 Dusty

[Chuck in Indiana]

Well, I can say we all agree it's a wren, but I don't think there is quite enough of a picture to positively identify it.
Have you ever watched their nesting behavior? Mr. Wren makes a nest, and brings Ms. Wren to have a look. "Nope.. too many twigs.." Mr. Wren makes another nest.. repeat.  Finally she acquiesceses.. and they live happily ever after.

[kirby1923]

. "Nope.. too many twigs.." Mr. Wren makes another nest.. repeat.  Finally she acquiesceses.. and they live happily ever after.

Strangely familiar....

:-)

[EldoMike]

We have them here in southern Illinois, they like making nest in unusual places...like helmets

[JJ]

My vote is a Bewick's Wren...but not the same coloring as we have here in Arizona...








2012 golf r 0 60

[maquette]

Carolina Wren. State bird of South Carolina.

[drbone641]

Color says Bewick's, rather than Carolina. 2 cents

[Mayor_of_BBQ]

I am not a bird expert but we spend a lot of hours sitting on the deck with a big whiskey sour and a pair of binoculars and a bird book..  We vote Carolina Wren

[Chuck in Indiana]

Certainly, the dark brown color with buff below says Carolina wren.. the Bewick's is more grey. I also don't see the white in the tips of the tail feathers of the Bewick, either.. plus the Bewick is grey/brown above, white below.
That said, I'm going with little brown job. 

[cliffrod]

I am not a bird expert but we spend a lot of hours sitting on the deck with a big whiskey sour and a pair of binoculars and a bird book..  We vote Carolina Wren

This ^^^ is  basically how I watch birds.  Except I usually stop at the word "whiskey"...

[DaSwami]

Carolina wren!

[Guzzistajohn]

They all taste the same <shrug>

[Tkelly]

I believe Dusty is right, Bewicks’s Wren. (DebbieKellyj

[m13]

I'm saying Carolina. A few years back I recorded a daily video log of a nest in my shed. the video quality isn't great but  may be interesting to some who like bird behavior. Just today wrens are building a nest in one of our hanging flower pots on the front porch.    https://youtu.be/00DsRLfcFDk
I had uploaded a longer version to the "tube" back in 2014 but was blocked for having copyright problems, I had Van Morrisons's Wind in the Willows backing it up (the piper at the gates of dawn is the wren) and also that copy had all the baby bird audio shouting out their little hungry cries.

[oldbike54]

I believe Dusty is right, Bewicks’s Wren. (DebbieKellyj

 Listen up , Debbie is one of our smart folks 

 Dusty

[Sasquatch Jim]

My cat says it is a delicious wren.

[tris]

Looks like a funny coloured Nuthatch to me, but if it is its a few thousand miles out of position

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/nuthatch/

If it is, don't brag about it too much or you'll have every "twitcher" (slang for bird watcher) in the States descend on your house