The Wrentit

A small bird about the size of a song sparrow, they have large round heads, with short rounded wings making them look somewhat plump. Their tails and legs are fairly long. Often times when you do happen to see one, they have their long tails sticking straight up in the air, similar to Wrens.

Not easily found, both the males and females will sing while deep inside shrubs. As they fly from one shrub to another, they fly slowly and will pump their tales to maintain elevation.

They live in the western US and Mexico. You can find them in the scrub and chaparral along the coast, as well as in parks and yards with shrubs. More inland they will live in mixed evergreen forests, oak woodlands, thicckets along creeks and dense scrublands. A very sedentary bird, it can spend its whole life living in only a couple of acres.

Their diet consists mostly of insects and berries. I’m not sure just what this one is eating, at first I thought it might be eating the purple leaf, but I’m not sure. I was just happy to find this bird in California, I could hear him singing but it took a long time for it to come out of hiding!