Humans form unique bonds with family-first Carolina wrens

Patti and Randy Edens of Willis are limited to driving one vehicle. A Carolina wren has built its nest in the cargo bed of their pickup truck, and three eggs are resting there.

“The wren got revenge,” Patti said.

That’s because the Edens had recently cleared out a brush pile on their wooded property, which had been the wren’s nesting spot. They figured the bird had finished nesting. But the little wren figured otherwise.

Now the Edens’ pickup truck stays parked to protect the wren’s nest.

Carolyn Townley of The Woodlands found a wren’s nest with eggs in a wreath on a door at her home a few weeks ago. She and her husband, Larry, have been entering the house through another door and have asked visitors to do likewise.

The eggs hatched just the other day, and the Townleys will now be guarding the chicks until they fledge in about two weeks.

Readers have often told me about wrens nesting in hanging flower baskets on a patio or in a backyard shed and even in a garage. A gentleman once told me about a wren that nested in his toolbox in the garage, so he suspended home repairs until the

chicks fledged.

We feel a bond with songbirds, which compels us to protect their nests no matter the inconvenience. The Edens will get by with one vehicle. The Townleys will go through another door to their house.

Maybe our connectedness to wild songbirds is because they have a fundamentally human trait. They form mating pairs, give birth and work hard to raise chicks while diligently protecting them and then teaching fledglings to live on their own.

Carolina wrens form lifelong mating pairs that raise three or more broods from spring through summer. The offspring may form their own mating pairs by Thanksgiving and begin nesting next spring in the same neighborhood as their parents, meaning wrens have extended family groups.

A mated pair stays together after breeding season and roosts together throughout fall and winter.

Birds sing songs, another human thing. Carolina wrens possess amazing singing ability and song variety.

The male sings a voluminously rolling song sounding like the words “tea-kettle-teakettle.” As the female constructs a nest, the male guards her while singing any number of more than 50 songs from his repertoire.

Perhaps we love our birds and guard them because we understand a basic human value — life is precious.

Kathy Adams Clark Carolina wrens form lifelong mating pairs that raise three or more broods from spring through summer.

Kathy Adams Clark Carolina wrens build their messy cup-shaped nests in locations like tree cavities, brush piles, flower baskets, wreaths — even the bed of a pickup.