[Fact box]

Landscape associations:

[BCR]

Print

Click on plot to view table of mean abundance

Characteristics and Range The Winter Wren was recently redefined when the closely related Pacific Wren (T. pacificus) and Eurasian Wren (T. troglodytes) were split as distinct species. The loud, varied, and long-sustained songs of these tiny, stub-tailed birds are a source of wonder, described by a birdsong authority as "a pinnacle of song complexity", albeit most complex in the Pacific Wren (Kroodsma 1980). Winter Wrens breed from northeastern British Columbia to Newfoundland, and southward into the Great Lakes states, New England, and the highest parts of the Appalachians. Their winter range is entirely within the eastern half of the U.S.A., plus extreme southern Ontario, overlapping only slightly with the breeding range.

Distribution, Abundance, and Habitat Atlas records extend over most of the forested portions of Manitoba, southward to Riding Mountain National Park, the central Interlake, and the southeastern boundary with Minnesota, but rarely north of a line around 57.5°N, from Reindeer Lake to the Nelson and Hayes Estuaries. Zones of high abundance and probability of observation correspond closely to the Boreal Softwood Shield, with outlying hot spots in the Duck Mountains and the Porcupine Hills. Peak abundance was detected in the remote Molson Lake / Island Lake region, northeast of Lake Winnipeg.

Preferred habitat is moist, mature coniferous forest or conifer-rich mixed forest. While the male typically sings from an elevated perch, nesting and foraging are concentrated in dense cover near ground level. Upturned roots of fallen trees provide preferred sites for the well-hidden nests, while low cavities and crevices in trees are also used (Wolf and Howe 1990). No nests were discovered during atlas fieldwork, but breeding was confirmed by 14 observations of fledged young and one of adult distraction display. The long singing period, from about mid-April to mid-July with gradual decline after mid-June, suggests persistent renesting in the event of nest loss. The possibility of double brooding, well known for House Wrens, would be difficult to verify for Winter Wrens in Manitoba.

Trends, Conservation, and Recommendations The Winter Wren prefers large stands of older forest growth and is thought to be vulnerable to clear-cutting and forest fragmentation (Wolf and Howe 1990). High mortality is associated with severe cold weather on the winter range; the net effect of overall warming trends punctuated with occasional severe winters may be increased variability in numbers. Nevertheless, BBS analysis shows generally stable or slightly increasing numbers across much of the breeding range including Manitoba and Ontario (Brewer 2007). These seemingly stable or increasing numbers in road-accessible parts of the breeding range, combined with evidence of higher numbers in more remote areas, support the current low level of conservation concern for this species. Increased long-term monitoring of this and other boreal songbird species remains important.

Peter Taylor

Recommended citation: Taylor, P. 2018. Winter Wren in Artuso, C., A. R. Couturier, K. D. De Smet, R. F. Koes, D. Lepage, J. McCracken, R. D. Mooi, and P. Taylor (eds.). The Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Manitoba, 2010-2014. Bird Studies Canada. Winnipeg, Manitoba http://www.birdatlas.mb.ca/accounts/speciesaccount.jsp?sp=WIWR&lang=en [05 Dec 2024]