FOAM LAKE BIRDING
No. 152
In keeping
with our California desert theme I decided to write about one of the most
common and conspicuous of our desert birds, the Cactus Wren. It is more of a true desert inhabitant than
either the Black Phoebe or the Phainopepla discussed in the previous two articles,
but still, it is often seen in the same locales as these two species.
I am rather
fortunate in that I have seen eight of the nine species of wrens that occur in North
America. The odd thing is that the one
species that I have not seen, the Sedge Wren, is found in the Foam Lake
area. Eight of the nine species of wrens
are small chunky birds with short tails and the males of all eight sit on open
perches and sing loudly claiming their territory. The Cactus Wren is different in almost all
ways from other members of its family. First,
it is a giant compared to the others being about halfway between a sparrow and
robin in size. Second, it is not a
songster in any sense of the word. Rather,
it makes a kind of grunting or chugging sound as it forages. An interesting characteristic is that it
prefers to nest in the very dense and prickly Cholla Cactus which explains the
origin of the bird’s name.
In terms of
field marks it looks like a short tailed thrasher for which it is often
mistaken. That is, it is a mottled brown
and white bird with a rather long down curved bill. Its only distinguishing mark is a pronounced
white eyebrow line. Unlike thrashers the
Cactus Wren is quite confiding and seems to like living close to man. It is not uncommon to see one or several
wrens running across a paved parking lot, penguin-like, chasing after something
to eat. Like thrashers they like to flip
over dead leaves in order to expose something tasty. Their primary food is insects but they will
catch small lizards and literally beat them to death by swinging them against something
hard like a rock, brick or pavement. I
have seen all of this take place within a few metres of where I was
standing.
This week’s
pictures were taken several years ago in two different places. The photo of the lone wren was taken in
Arizona; the photo of the Cactus Wren and Phainopepla sharing a snag was taken
in California. I included the second
photo simply because I liked it.
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