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Oil on Panel - 16 x 12 inches

    House Wrens are now referred to as Northern House Wrens after last year's split by the American Ornithological Society. As an owner of several reference books on birds, it’s amazing how quickly out-of-date they've become. With changes made every year, whether by splitting species, lumping them together, or changing their names, it can be hard to keep up. 
    Northern House Wrens can find all sorts of interesting places to nest. On my property, I have two bird houses specifically for them, but in some years, they’ve also nested in a cable sleeve above our ditch – a black nylon-like material that covers hardware on a wire. 

Northern House Wren with a fecal sac exiting a utility wire sleeve above the ditch at my home. Photo 8/9/2020. ©Becca Mulenburg

  Each fall, my husband empties our wren birdhouses, but according to a study by Charles F. Thompson and Andrew J. Neill from the Department of Biological Sciences at Illinois State University, emptying wren birdhouses makes no difference to these birds when they return in the spring. Empty or not, a spiffy box is no more enticing than one still containing an old nest, even though nesting material can contain ectoparasites and bacteria such as Salmonella. Male Northern House Wrens will remove old nests before beginning anew, and don’t prefer clean birdhouses over dirty ones. 
    Stay wild, my friends!


References

David R. Singleton, & Harper, R. G. (1998). Bacteria in Old House Wren Nests (Bacterias en Nidos Usados por Troglodytes aedon). Journal of Field Ornithology, 69(1), 71-74. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4514289

Thompson, C. F. & Neill, A. J. (1991). House wrens do not prefer clean nestboxes. Animal Behaviour, 42(6), 1022-1024. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-3472(05)80157-5

Copyright notification: The internet is a scary place. I have seen my artwork on unauthorized websites. This is called stealing, also known as copyright infringement. The only authorized websites allowed to display my artwork are www.beccamulenburg.com, www.beccamulenburg.blogspot.com, and galleries currently showing my work. Any other website, posting, sales of my work, or the like, is illegitimate and operating under copyright infringement which is against the law. This includes Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Amazon (worldwide), and more. Anyone found to have infringed a copyrighted work may be liable for statutory damages up to $30,000 for each work infringed and, if willful infringement is proven by the copyright owner, that amount may be increased up to $150,000 for each work infringed. Please be aware. Copyrights do not transfer with the sale of any of my artworks.


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