The winter garden is a great place to watch the birds. It’s a tough time for all garden wildlife, so feeding our feathered friends and providing fresh water are essential activities to keep them safe.
Wrens are tiny and weigh just a few grams. That helps to understand just how fragile these little creatures are and yet despite all their challenges they can and do survive in a harsh British winter.
There’s something quite magical about these tiny little birds. They have a sticky up tail and a plump body and hop around our plots with sprightly movements. Its pure song can split the fog on a winter’s day, bringing a comforting blanket of music to the scene. The Dutch call the wren the WinterKoning, Winter King, revered and yet in other lands this pert little bird is all but persecuted and hunted for sacrificial rituals at New Year and mid-winter.
While the male wrens are territorial, especially in spring when the competition finding a partner is fierce, in winter these little birds huddle together for warmth at night. A roosting pocket or birdhouse is a perfect place for a cluster of feisty little brown-feathered friends. For if they are at war in the spring, in winter the quest for survival outweighs everything else. BTO Records show that 63 wrens were discovered all huddled together inside just one nest box to keep warm. You can do your own research using a nest box camera or counting the birds moving into the box at dusk or if you are really keen you can clean the box out and then count the droppings the morning after the sleepover.
Winter challenges
Winter is tough for all garden wildlife, but for little birds like the wren, our third smallest bird after the firecrest and the goldcrest, it is essential to find regular supplies of high-energy food. Wrens eat insects mostly and of course in cold, snowy weather or when the ground is frozen, the insects too are hunkered down away from the cold. What’s more our garden wrens do not feed from hanging feeders, they rarely grace a bird table and are more frequently seen scurrying around the leaves, looking for bugs. Like the robins and the blackbirds, the wrens are ground feeders, but they are secretive and fast, darting around more like a mouse or a shrew than a bird. If you want to support these delightful birds on your plot, choose an insect rich treat like Richard’s High Energy Suet Balls, they contain mealworms and high-energy ingredients and are soft and accessible for little birds. Crumble them up and sprinkle under shrubs or where you know your garden wrens and other ground feeders forage.
Leave the leaves
You don’t need to clear all the leaves from your lawns, beds and borders, in fact leaving the leaves helps the garden wildlife, like our lovely wrens because it provides shelter for all sorts of mini beasts that ground feeders love to eat. Sweep them under the hedge or under your shrubs in the borders where the little birds can visit and feed in private.
Compost corner
Just like the garden robin follows you around as you garden, every bit of soil your turn over is good for all of our garden birds because it disturbs the soil micro flora (bugs and things) and presents them to our feathered friends for food. In the same way a little digging in the compost bin might uncover a few tasty morsels for the garden birds, including our friends the wren. So have a rummage in the compost, flick a few trowels of composting material onto the garden and let the birds feast and feed behind your back.
Find out more >
