Sedge Wren

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Sedge Wren
The Sedge Wren has a brown back and buffy underparts. The crown is brown streaked with white. The Sedge Wren also has a white eyebrow, a short, cocked tail, and a short, slender bill. The sexes are similar in appearance.

A chattering trill is sung by the male Sedge Wren from a perch atop sedges or small bushes. The song has been likened to the rattling of a bag of marbles or the tapping of two sticks together, "chap-chap-chap-chap, chap, chap p-p-p-r-r-r."

Habitat
Sedge Wrens prefer drier transitional edges of freshwater marshes, bogs and wet meadows. The loss of wetland habitats through human development and degradation is the primary reason for the decline of Sedge Wren populations.

Range
The Sedge Wren ranges from southeastern Saskatchewan to southern Maine, south to Arkansas, West Virginia and Virginia. It also occurs in eastern New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The species winters from southern Texas and eastern Mexico through the lower Mississippi Valley and Gulf Coast to southern Florida and north, along the Atlantic coast, to Maryland.
Sedge Wren Range Map

Diet
The Sedge Wren's diet consists of moths, beetles, ants, caterpillars, grasshoppers, other similar insects and spiders.

Reproduction
The Sedge Wren breeds in late May through early June. The nest is built in sedges or rush-like grasses within 1 to 2 feet of muddy ground or shallow water. It is a well-hidden ball of woven grasses with an opening on one side. The interior is lined with cattail down, fur or feathers. Usually 6 or 7 smooth, white, short, oval eggs are laid per clutch. Sedge wrens often lay 2 clutches per year. Incubation is done by the female and lasts for 12 to 14 days. The young are tended by both adults but primarily by the female. They leave the nest 12 to 14 days after hatching.

Male Sedge Wrens often build additional "dummy" nests. These nests are unlined and not as well constructed as the actual nest. Dummy nests can accumulate in great numbers where several pairs of Sedge Wrens are nesting as a colony.

The Sedge Wren has a variety of aliases that give further testimony to its preferred habitat: meadow wren, freshwater marsh wren and grass wren. Until recently, it was known as the short-billed marsh wren and may often be referred to as such.

Visit Shaw Creek Bird Supply to see our selection of Wren Houses.