[Mnbird] update on wren behavior in SW Mpls.

[Allen Batt]

Single male house wrens sometimes compete for females even after a pair has begun nesting and can displace their rivals. Some mated males sing to advertise for secondary mates at surplus cavities on their territories, a form of polygamy called polygyny. 

Al Batt

“Do something wild today. Look at a bird.” — Al Batt


> On Jul 16, 2024, at 1:54 PM, Susan Kennedy via Mnbird <mnbird at lists.mnbird.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> I wrote recently about a male wren repeatedly visiting the recently vacated birdhouse (south side), while his second family was still in residence in another house on the west side.
> 
> Today, the male visited the south side house again, but had a female with him inspecting the house. They also visited the unused house on the north side of my porch. This seems to me that this must be a second female, as the babies in the west side house presumably have a mom feeding them. (Of course, they don't wear name tags; I assume the singing bird must be the male, but I can't prove two females.) It seems so odd that a new female would show up mid-summer. 
> 
> Then, to add to the puzzlement, a pair of chickadees also were trying to inspect the south house several times, driven off, of course, by the wren. (In past years, the chickadees used the south box, but fledged their family before the wren arrived.)
> 
> Fascinating events without even me leaving home.
> 
> Susan
> _______________________________________________
> Mnbird mailing list
> Mnbird at lists.mnbird.net
> http://mail.lists.mnbird.net/mailman/listinfo/mnbird_lists.mnbird.net
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.lists.mnbird.net/pipermail/mnbird_lists.mnbird.net/attachments/20240716/604c8c3e/attachment.htm>