The average person most likely would not understand my excitement. Anyone who has more than a casual appreciation of nature, including everyone who is reading this I’m sure, will get where I’m coming from.

From an outsider’s perspective, a winter wren is not much to get excited about. It’s a small brown bird – even smaller and more nondescript than a sparrow. Big deal.

Well, winter wrens are a pretty big deal, to me anyway. That’s why I went out of my way to try to photograph one the other day. I ventured off the trail, tromped through brush that was probably tick-infested and patiently waited for this little brown bird to take a perch and start singing. 

Winter wrens, like so many other birds, are not easy to photograph. They are shy and don’t like to sit still. I’ve been unsuccessful in many attempts to photograph these birds. This time my patience paid off. The photos I got will never end up in National Geographic, but for me, I’m happy with what I got. 

Winter wrens are northern birds. They breed in the northern New England forests and well into Canada. In winter, they migrate as far as northern Florida. 

A major part of what makes them so special is that they are not seen as often as the other wrens. House wrens are fairly common throughout the spring, summer and fall, and Carolina wrens are now a solid year-round resident throughout much of New England. Carolina wrens and house wrens are fairly loud and conspicuous, particularly Carolina wrens, which have a booming voice that belies their small stature. Winter wrens, on the other hand, usually stay hidden in the brush or understory and do not like to be seen as much as their cousins. 

Winter wrens do have interesting vocalizations that are fun to listen to when you are lucky enough to find one. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes the winter wren’s song as “A cascading, bubbly song that lasts about 5-10 seconds. Each song is made up of dozens of bell-like notes that they combine and change up from time to time.” 

Winter wrens are usually found on or near the ground. Fallen logs and rock walls are where I usually find them. When spotted, they are good at doing a disappearing act. I’ve watched them hop all over a fallen log looking for food and, whenever I take one step closer, they are gone without a trace. I don’t see or hear them fly off, but they are nowhere to be found.

Earlier, I described them as nondescript little brown birds. Well, that is true for the most part, but a closer look reveals interesting barring patterns on their wings, belly and tail – similar to the other wrens. The winter wren is the smallest of the wrens found in New England, being about an inch smaller than a house wren. The thin, short tail is perhaps its most distinguishing feature.

It was a fun day finding and photographing the winter wren. To some, I may have looked silly tromping through the woods to photograph a tiny brown bird. To others, my fascination is completely understandable. The latter are my kind of people.