Carolina wrens nested in our yard for the first time this year. Their first brood was in the radiator cowling of an old Farmall tractor in a wagon shed. The second nest was in the hayloft of the barn (photo on right). Both nests had horizontal entrances and were similarly constructed of twigs, grass, and a few leaves. When I discovered the first nest, the female was incubating and the male was continuing to bring nesting material, making repeated trips with mouthfuls of rootlets and fine grass. The incubating female is the quietest of any species I have observed. She seldom even moved her head and sometimes didn't even appear to be breathing. The horizontal entrance gives an unusual and more personal view of the incubating female, although, sometimes, she would draw back into the nest and all that would be visible would be the side of her head and one eye - never seeming to blink.
The young leave the nest before they can fly well, or, perhaps, at all. The fledglings inside the barn were crawling and hopping all over at least one day before they flew. I didn't notice this in the first nesting, but may have missed it.
The first nest in the tractor fan shroud. The nest would be easily accessible by our cats and other predators, but the adult wrens take care to approach the nest only when unobserved.
fledgling on a barn window 40 ft from the second nest. The young leave the nest pretty much on foot. This would seem to be a very vulnerable time for them, but all fledglings of both nestings survived a day or two of crawling around in the wagon shed and barn before their first flight out of the buildings
The male leaving the nest He always used extreme caution in both leaving and entering the nest, in order to not disclose its location. Placing the camera didn't bother him, but, neither adult would enter the nest if I were anywhere in view.
The camera at the tractor nest.
The following still photos are taken from a single frame of video from the vhs tapes. This process results in a substantial loss of quality compared to the original camera image and vhs tape.
female on the nest - typical view of one eye
