Wren’s are small fast birds that you can find in your own back garden, Their are over 10 million wren’s in the UK alone!. They have been localized to many towns (even maybe in your area) and are compact with quick reflexes and energy. The Wren have a beautiful song that is loud and full […]
Continue Reading The Common Wren
Hi Leila,
If it’s cold in your area (close to freezing in the UK) it looks like you’ve got a late batch of young wrens nearby.
I would guess the wrens been clipped by a car and is in shock, we found a young blackbird (more than old enough to survive alone) sitting in the middle of the road late evening (was dark).
Just missed running over it, we pulled in walked over to it and it didn’t move, picked it up, put it in the back of the car in a hat with no struggle at all.
At home we put it in a small cardboard box overnight with a little food/water and left it (it wasn’t eating). Following day when we went in the box it was much more alert and tried to escape (flew out the box). We kept it for a couple of days in a large wooden box with a mesh covering and gave it plenty of worms.
Took it to the local park (2 mins walk from where we found it) and released it. Since it had it’s own droppings on it’s tail from sitting in an enclosed space we could recognise the bird for a few days and it was happily foraging on the park at least a few days later.
As long as your wren isn’t injured (clipped by a car for example) I’d expect it to be far more alert now and be trying to avoid your contact.
If it is acting normally a few days of only eating meal worms won’t cause it any harm especially when you consider if it was foraging for food it’s highly unlikely to do as well as juicy meal worms everyday, so I’d say it will do really well on them (better than trying to find food in the wild).
With regards the number of meal worms to feed it, when it’s full it will stop eating. So if it will eat without the use of tweezers (which I assume it does) put a small feeding tub of mealworms in it’s cage/box and when empty refill it.
Since wrens will eat insects, spiders, larvae/caterpillars and seeds in the wild you could provide small seeds or even ground up cereals like Weetabix or Cornflakes. Worse case scenario is it won’t eat it :)
Although a late in the year fledgling is going to struggle to survive through a winter (unfortunate truth for all late fledglings) I’d aim to release it as close to where you found it as soon as you feel it’s recovered (few days if not injured and just in shock).
Obviously you don’t want to release the bird on a road, so like our young blackbird find the closest appropriate area for release like a local park.
Good luck
love to see and even more so hear the wren. Used to have them in garden but nextdoors cats chased them and lots of others away… cats are now dead, through natural old age, I have to say!!!! Birds are slowly returning to my garden but only seen 1 wren. what could i do to encourage it to bring its friends?
Have regular woodpeckers, blackcaps, siskins, finches of all sorts, blue, coal, great and occasionaly longtail tits. Crows, woodpigon, house sparrows. and hedge sparrows, thrushes, robins, starlings by the dozen, and lots more. Also have buzzards and sparrow hawks flying over daily. Heron down the field from ours and duks. The list goes on. I am VERY lucky to live where I am. Still would like to encourage more wrens.
I just found a baby wren in the bird bath this morning floating on its side. I got it out in time; the others had flown out this AM early .I think he was on his way, too, but fell in there. After he slowly came back to life I put him back by the nest and he is slowly recovering, had been shivering but seems better now that he has dried off. The nest is by the back door and I had been watching the activity, knowing they would leave any day now. I will try the dry cat food and meal worms as a short term solution; Thank goodness I found your website as I was at a loss as to what to do. Got some great suggestions from your contributors. Wish me luck. He is so helpless right now.
At what temperature do you incubate wren eggs.
I found 3 small birds laying about 20 feet from one another and later discovered their nest laying beside my garage.I’m guessing the nest fell from the tree. The birds seem very young…some brown/black down feathers on head, pink bodies and the feathers on their wings and tail are still in this plastic looking sheath, and they can’t walk…just sort of flop around. I have been feeding them jarred baby food, meat only, since getting them 2 days ago. They seem healthy so far. I have to take them to work with me and feeding them so often is quite hard, but worth it if it saves their little lives. My boys are learning from this as well.( One of our dogs was a starving stray as well.) I’m not sure if their wrens though…I have pics of them if you would take a look for me.
Can anyone tell me how fast a wren can fly? Mine was sure knocked silly for half a day after running into a window!
we found a baby wren and it’s hurt. what do we do? not sure how old the poor thing is but it’s brown w/ a spotted breast and sort of downy. we read the comment from kathy keener. should we try it? HELP US PLEASE !!!! we call it Peepers.
We just brought in a baby wren, about 5 days old. Does it have to be keep warm? It’s brother and sisters all died and his mom hasn’t come back.
I have a small bird and I think it may be a wren. It is young and I have been taking care of it for 4 days feeding it worms. No force feeding required, she is quite able to just pick the piece of worm off the end of a tooth pick. My concern is, she seems almost crippled. Her feed are a mangled mess under her body and she has no feathers directly under her belly. I do not have any experience or knowledge of birds at all. Can anyone help me out with any guideance?? She has started flapping her wings but having difficulty spreading her toes and grasping onto my finger. What do I do now??
In one of our out buildings at work, we had a nest of Wren’s, same as last year, they have finally flown the nest today 4no little babies and I have been watching them with the mother this afternoon, 3no have disappeared but one still remains and mummy is coming back and feeding him, I got some lovely pictures and video of him calling for mummy, she did come back with a worm for him.
This is the second year in a row they have nested in our outbuilding, but this year we are moving offices and our premises is being demolished by the council for apratments. They will have to find a new home next year!
Very amazing site, not something you see everyday!
hello there i have got a baby wren he is eatting very well ready break mashed up and pooing well but sometimes is kneck swels up like a big bilister and this i find worring i have try to find out how to care for him he has feathers on wings and back not many on belly but seems in good health can not fly just flutter and sing churp sort of but if any body can help me that would be great i have brought some meal worms but can not get them down what should i do how do i care for the little fellow manythanks x
Hello, I really need help. I found a baby wren outside my back door a little while ago. My cat was around so I think she may have caught it. The wren looks fine, he’s breathing but not moving much. He has falpped his wings a few times but Im not sure if he’s injured or just in shock. What should I do?
Hi,
My friend has wrens nesting in her garden and a few times when she has come home from work there have been wrens flying around inside the house!!
Why would they come inside? And why so often? (it’s happened about 4 or 5 times now)
Anyone know?
I welcome all comments.
Thanks
i got a baby wren and at first i fed it with raw sprats broken down into small worm size pieces, now i’m adding a few small pieces of fruit and some water to its diet with some water.for now he is doing pretty much okay. hope this helps.
PS remember they need protein.
Hi – was wondering of anyone can help please? I think I have taken in a wren today that has been injured by a cat judging by the mangled feathers that were found close by. Looks like it has an injured wing and although it can walk ok, I’m really not sure what do to with it. It has water and various bits of food including some works and seems to be eating just fine but it can’t fly. At present I have it in a well ventilated box in a dark cupboard indoors. When I last checked up on it, it was sleeping and settled. Generally it appears to be in good health, very alert etc. Just not too sure what to do next. Any helpful suggestions welcomed please!!!
Thanks x
I have what I believe is a winter wren fledgling. I live in Finland and every year there are many bird families who raise their young. This fledgling, however, was in front of our apartment complex (the forest and lake are in the back) and it could barely fly (about 1 meter). It was in an area where children play and there are occassional cats. I brought it inside as it was in the evening and I didn’t see the parents, although they may have been watching. Later I went outside and saw nothing but a few night swallows and some fieldfares. NOW I NEED HELP WITH A PROBLEM: The baby needs a source of protein. I have tried finely chopped chicken, egg yolks and whites (cooked and raw), and mushed up cooked peas. In fact, I have mushed up about everything in my fridge and the ONLY thing it likes is mushed up cooked carrots. This morning, I can get something from the pet store and I will call the university to see if there is a bird rehabilitator. As far as I know, here in Finland they only take rare birds. I had a down woodpecker for a day in recovery because it was being savaged by 2 magpies. It ate some raw ground beef, but it was a young adult. I also fed it water. After a good night’s sleep, I went deep into the forest – away from the magpies, and turned it loose. I saw it two days later and it was doing fine. It was recognizable because it had lost a few feathers, which gave it the appearance of an irregular bars on the wings and its tail was pretty ragged. Now, back to my baby. If I set it loose in the dense underbrush in back of the apartment complex, is there any chance the parents will hear it and come back? Once I turn it loose, I will not be able to find it again because the brush is dense. I can keep this bird for four days, but at the end of the week, I have a very long drive to attend a funeral and I will be gone for 2 days. Taking the baby bird with me is possible, but it makes a long trip more challenging. That said, I need to know at what point I can return this baby to the wild. I had planned to keep it a couple days until it could fly instead of hopping about flapping its wings. What do I do with it? It’s lovely and would make a good pet, but it is probably against the law to keep wild thing without a permit. I have a parakeet who preens the baby and tries to keep it company. The parakeet has not been aggressive in any way. I’m hoping the baby might start ground feeding as the parakeet wanders around my kitchen picking at its own seed dish plus helping itself to whatever vegetables are put out for my guinea pigs. ANY ADVICE ABOUT FEEDING AND RELEASE WOULD BE WELCOME AND MOST APPRECIATED. If yo want to see a photo of this baby, please let me know if you have a place on your website where I can post it.
i am having a extention on my house and the buliders were taking the roof off and found a ren sitting on 8 eggs wih only 2 uncracked ones, the ren flew off and i cant put the nest back on my roof now.
ive put the eggs at the top of my snakes cage and courned it off so that she cant get them and they get heat, what temperature do you have to keep them at? and how long is it till they become inderpendant? PLEASE HELP ME!! thanks x
Hi I have found two baby wren eggs in an abandoned nest outside my house I have them under a light trying to keep them warm I dont really know what to do so any help would be awsome.
HELP!!!
We found a baby wren who had fallen out of a birds nest! His left wing and leg our broken… so he cant walk nor fly. We have in a warm towel. We have given him water with a dropper and we tried feeding him bird seed… but he threw up! We need to feed him… what should we feed him and how should we help!!!!!! Plz reply???
A couple of wrens built a nest inside our stove fan vent (that leads directly to the outside. When you’re standing outside looking at the vent, there are three metal flaps that open somewhat, when the stove fan is turned on. I have no idea how they managed to build the nest inside, but they did.
What is the problem?
These freaking birds to not shut up.
Ever.
It is no longer cute or sweet – they are driving me crazy.
Is there anything I can do to make them be quiet? I’m not a cruel person – I have no intention of harming them or their babies – I just want to know if there are any solutions you can think of.
Today I climbed up on a ladder and opened the vents briefly, and saw the birds sitting on their nest, so I left them alone. I wanted to see if there were any babies but the birds looked pretty full grown to me. I felt bad for frightening them and will not disturb them again.
Meantime, seriously, is there anything I can do, here? Do you know how long all of this is going to take before their eggs hatch and these babies grow up and fly away?
Please respond via email at newsgirl58@entouch.net.
Thanks.
Dear Mary,
After the wrens lay tier eggs they will quiet down significantly. I suggest patients. It will not be long. Good luck!