Feederwatch – Carolina Wren

Week two of the Feederwatch season anyway started well with a (photographed) visit of one of the Carolina Wrens to the feeder array. Not possible yet to say these are common birds in the neighbourhood, but “ours” have been around most of the year and hopefully will survive the winter on the back of our food supply. There is a paper in the literature about Carolina Wren survival in winter and contrary to common belief that the winters are warmer and so less stressful – which is true – it is rather the availability of a regular food supply that makes the difference.  These are foragers in the leaf litter and so cannot make much of a living when the snow is down unless there are alternative places to eat – it seems that when it comes to cold weather, they are tougher than we thought.