During March and April, you may see myriads of little passerines chirping and darting about from one branch to another. Trills, chatters, and cackles fill the air, and you wonder if you can identify just one male Carolina wren in the crowd.
Carolina wrens are more audible than visible. They are quite shy, but the males love to sing. It has been observed that they can sing 3000 times a day. Sometimes, a male and female sing together in a duet. So, are there other ways to tell Carolina wren male vs female apart?
The answer lies in their behavior, especially during the breeding season. To know about these differences in depth, you need to hop a little further and dig a little deeper. Let’s start.
Contents
Overview of Carolina Wren
Source: @amatskophotos
Wrens are small songbirds that belong to the order Passeriformes, and Troglodytidae family. The noticeable and defining characteristics of wrens are that they hold their thin tails straight at their back, and they possess down-turned beaks. The wren family consists of 88 known species, divided into 19 genera. One of the species is Carolina wren, of the genus Thryothorus.
Scientifically known as Thryothorus ludovicianus, Carolina wrens inhabit the eastern parts of the United States mostly, and also north-east of Mexico, and Canada. These tiny passerines prefer both forested areas and suburban localities, and look a beautiful chestnut brown on the upper wings, and white underneath. They also have a defining pair of white eye-brows.
Carolina Wren Male and Female: Comparison Table
Before we proceed further, take a look at a list of differences in advance.
| Features | Carolina Wren Male | Carolina Wren Female |
| Mating Ritual | Sing, dance, feather display | Sing only in response to male |
| Nesting and Brooding | Builds dummy nests, forage, help females to brood | Females make advanced-looking nests, brood, coax, feed |
| Territorial Behavior | Hop about, hold their body horizontally pointing beak at the intruder | Shout loudly |
| Feeding Habits | At the top of the tree | At the bottom of the tree |
| Calls | Sing ‘tea kettle” song | Trills, chatter, cackle |
| Size, beak, wing, tail | All slightly larger and longer | All slightly smaller and shorter |
Similarities Between Carolina Wren Male and Female
Carolina wren male and female are similar to each other by 90%. They both belong to the same family, so the commonalities are inevitable. Both the genders are year-round residents of the United States and Central America.They do not migrate– they do not even fly that much. Both are territorial– even the females will scold at the intruders and chase them away.
These little passerines can be spotted almost everywhere. They can be found in brush-covered areas, wooded swamps, moist woodlands, decaying logs, savanna grasslands, scrub forests and hummocks. They frequent gardens and old sheds too– near to human beings.
They practice sincere, monogamous parenting, though on some rare occasions, the males and the females have been located mating with other partners. Together they make nests and brood the chicks. Both these birdies have the same choice of food– spiders, chinch-bugs, cockroaches, wasps, snails, millipedes, and even small pieces of frogs and snakes.
Do they look alike, you ask? Yes, totally. That’s the barrier that’s most difficult to cross when it comes to differentiate them. Both the genders have the same colors on their plumage– cinnamon on the top, and white underneath. Ways you can recognize Carolina wrens is to look for their white eye-stripe and an upward pointing tail– two defining characteristics.
Carolina Wren Male and Female: Behavioral Differences
The best way to tell Carolina wren male and female apart is to observe their behavior, especially during the breeding season. Their physical characteristics bear some nuances too, but they are almost unidentifiable. This is the reason why physical aspects have been discussed a little later.
Source: @andreakapplerphotography
Mating Ritual
Distinct differences can be found between Carolina male and female when it comes to their mating behavior. One thing that Carolina males love to do is sing. It has been observed that males sing out loud, nearabout 9 to 11 times every minute, piercing the depths of silence. Though the notes are high-pitched, they are melodious indeed.
They do not only sing– they also dance with the rhythm by bobbing their heads up and down. Singing and dancing becomes quite frequent during March and April, when single males look forward to starting a family of their own. A male follows a female around in a stiff hopping pattern, and when they finally achieve the female’s attention, they perform a plumage display.
Plumage displays of males include puffing out the feathers and fanning out the tails. They also flaunt agonistic displays– males hold their body horizontal, fan the tails out, and hold their wings up, pointing their beak at the females. They may do the same thing to mark their territorial presence. On that occasion, the male wren would address this dance at the intruder.
The females, like most other females in the avian world, would observe the performance of the male plumage display and make a mating decision. On many occasions, the females would sing “duet” with the males to express to him that he has been chosen. Females do not sing by themselves though– they only sing in response to the males.
Nesting and Brooding
Breeding season of Carolina wrens starts in April and continues till October. In the southern populations, the egg laying begins much earlier, like in March. Carolina wrens can raise 2 or 3 broods per year.
Male Carolina wrens are largely monogamous, though on rare occasions, they have been found to have opted for other mates. A relationship between a pair formed lasts for longer than a year, often for several years, till death does them apart.
Males, during breeding season, will build several basic nests and then start to sing songs around them in order to attract a female. If during spring and enter season, you happen to spot Carolina wrens building simple looking nests, rest assured, they are male Carolinas.
Once the nest has been built, and the female starts laying eggs, the males go out into the woods to forage for caterpillars, beetles, grasshoppers, and moth larvae, to feed the soon-to-be- mother. The male continues to stay loyal to the family during incubation of the eggs, and even after the eggs have hatched and the chicks have started to fledge.
The chicks of Carolina wrens stay dependent on their parents for a long time– in fact they transcend their welcome period. In that case, the parents start feeding them less so as to coax them to leave the nest and forage on their own. Surprisingly, the male stays around to help the female do that too. During the winters, males act even more protective about his new family.
Just like the males, the female Carolina wrens are monogamous. However, on certain, very rare instances, Carolina females have been found to take other mates after the chicks have started to fledge and forage on their own. This behavior varies with different species of wrens.
Remember the males making several dummy nests at the start of the breeding season? The females have the final say in choosing one nest. After making the choice, the females complete the nest by adding pine needles, animal hair and fur in the interior parts of the nest, and grass and moss on the exteriors to make the nest warm and cozy for the new chicks.
The females lay about 3 to 7 eggs, within 1-2 hours of sunrise. She incubates the eggs for 12-16 days, and during the first 4 days of hatching, females intensively brood the chicks. The males bring the food, and both of them place the food into the chicks’ mouths. She even broods the young at night. Both the parents return a few weeks later, to check on their young ones.
Source: @morrowmountain
Territorial Behavior
Both male and female Carolina wrens demonstrate territorial behavior. However, the patterns of behavior are slightly different between the two.
The males are more gregarious than the females, and they are often spotted hopping about on the ground at great speeds to look intimidating to the intruder, in order to ask them to stay away from their territory.
Females, who are shy and quiet most of the time, turn very territorial when they see an intruder close to their nest, or a polygamous female looking for a partner. During these times, the females would generate high-pitched noises to keep threats and competition at bay.
Source: @rachrosenstein
Feeding Habits
Male and female Carolina wrens have the same dietary preferences– they are mostly insectivores, but would occasionally settle for berries and acorns also.
However, male Carolina wrens like to forage more on the elevated parts of trees. They hitch themselves up on trees to find bugs within the layers of bark. More than fluttering their wings, they prefer to jump over fallen logs and debris piles.
Females, on the other hand, like to stay on the ground to look through shrubs and other short vegetation to search for caterpillars and beetles. Staying close to the bottom of a tree and scratching up insects from the ground is their foraging hot-spot.
Calls
Male Carolina wrens sing most of the time throughout the year, but their songs turn louder, longer and more frequent during the breeding season. They are known to sing on average 11 times every minute. They learn how to sing within the first three months of their life. The songs contain repetitive, quick-whistled notes that sound like “tea kettle, tea kettle”.
Males also generate distress calls, to convey territorial dominance, and to communicate within their own community. Other sounds that are audible are “cheery-cheery-cheery”, “che-wortel che-wortel”, and alarm noises like “pee-dink, pee-dink”.
Females do not sing, but they do respond to males singing during courtship. They make sounds that represent casual communications. Females are best known to trill, clack, and chatter. The sounds are not as loud as males, but they could be high-pitched at times. Females use loud noises to call chicks to assemble, to save territory, or to ward off polygamous females.
Sounds like “dit dit” or “chatter” can be generated by females only. So, better keep your ears open to listen to such noises where you suspect Carolina wrens may be roosting.
Carolina Wren Male and Female: Physical Differences
Now, let’s shed some light on the physical nuances.
Size
From a distance, Carolina wrens male and female may look absolutely similar– even in length and height. But fortunately, there are some differences that must be borne in mind while you are out trying to identify these birds.
Source: @allisonfmonroe
The males are slightly larger and heavier than the females. The males are 4.5 to 5.5 inches long, and when they spread their wings, the wingspread measures up to 11 inches. Also, look out for puffy looking Carolna wrens in March and April– they must be males since they puff their wings and tails out to attract the females during this time.
Source: @mostlybird_photos
The males also weigh a little more than the females. If you have successfully made some avian friends in your backyard, or are a proud owner of Carolina wrens yourself, then you can ask them to perch on your fingers and weigh them. Males weigh about 20 gm, whereas females weigh less by 11% at the least.
Beak
Carolina wrens mainly forage on the ground for food and they use their bill to turn leaves over or to hold caterpillars or earthworms at the tip of their beaks to carry the food to their family.
These birds also feed on remains of large vertebrates, like snakes or frogs, and their long and pointed bill helps them to tear the flesh out from the body of the carcass.
Both Carolina Wren male and female have long, pointed beaks. However, the beaks of males are slightly curved downwards, and are longer than the females.
Carolina wren beaks have a dark upper mandible, and a light-yellow lower mandible.
Wings and Tails
The wings and tails of Carolina wren males are longer than those of the females. Carolina wrens have two, narrow white bars on their wings, and flaunt black barring on their tails.
One eye-catching feature about their tails is, it is always held upright. The males fan their tail feathers, and flutter their wing feathers during courtship display to attract female attention.
As mentioned previously, Carolina wrens do not fly very far. If they need to move short distances, they flap their wings quite fast. Wind flapping is accompanied by jerks in their tail feathers and body.
Plumage
Carolina wrens flaunt a deep, rusty brown back and crown. Their undersides are a lighter shade of cinnamon, and do not contain any dots or bars. In certain regions of Florida, however, Carolina wrens may appear to look more rusty, and the chest a deeper brown.
Sexual dimorphism is almost non-existent between males and females. However, certain observations have shown the females to have subdued shades of the same colors. In other words, females appear to look duller than the males.
Thoughts
Carolina Wren male vs female– these two birds share a number of similarities. It is obvious they will because they belong to the same family of Troglodytidae birds.
To begin, they both have similarly colored plumage–cinnamon on the crest and back, and buff on the chest, with white to off-white bellies. Both their dietary habits and location preferences are same too– they both are insectivores and like areas covered in low shrubs.
Most of their differences lie in their nesting behavior and vocalizations. If possible, spend some time in the woods where you think Carolina wrens may be nesting. Observe them for as many days as possible and hear out what they have to say to you.
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