04.13.25: Wren with supplies

‍Many birds fit into a broad “difficult to photograph” category.

‍Then there are wrens, a bird that ranks well beyond difficult.

‍Wrens are small — about five inches in length from the tip of their long, curved bill to the tip of their tail — and in constant motion, two factors that make a wren photograph more luck than skill, at least for me.

‍There are only two bird species that are more difficult for me to photograph than wrens. Those are the Brown Creeper, a wren-sized bird that constantly spirals up tree trunks; and Ruby-crowned Kinglet, a four-inch long bird that moves constantly through foliage, seldom providing a clear view for photographers.

‍But I keep trying.

‍I found this Carolina Wren in Six Mile Cypress Slough, a nature preserve in Fort Myers, Fla. It was one of a pair of wrens carrying building material to a nest location hidden in the underbrush.  The fact that the birds were building a nest made it a bit easier to get photographs. Each time a bird returned to the area with some twigs it tended to land on the same group of limbs just above where I suspected the nest was. It would perch for a few seconds before diving down to the underbrush, giving me time to grab a shot.

‍I ended up with about 20 usable photos of the wrens, most like this one showing them carrying twigs and leaves to the nest. 

‍Carolina Wrens are a bit brighter the other wren varieties in the Eastern United States. The back and wings are a warm reddish brown as opposed to the dull brown of the House Wren and other similar varieties. The chest and underside are a buffy orange. The long white eyebrow makes it easy to identify.