Marsh wren

Marsh wren
A marsh wren in Canada
Singing in Typha marsh in Minnesota
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Subclass: Neornithes
Infraclass: Neognathae
Superorder: Neoaves
Order: Passeriformes
Suborder: Passeri
Infraorder: Passerida
Family: Troglodytidae
Genus: Cistothorus
Species: C. palustris
Binomial name
Cistothorus palustris
(Wilson, A., 1810)
Synonyms

Telmatodytes palustris

The marsh wren (Cistothorus palustris) is a small North American songbird of the wren family. It is sometimes called long-billed marsh wren to distinguish it from the sedge wren, also known as short-billed marsh wren.

Taxonomy

The marsh wren was described by the Scottish-American ornithologist Alexander Wilson in 1810 and given the binomial name Certhia palustris.[2] The current genus Cistothorus was introduced by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1850.[3] There are 15 recognised subspecies.[4]

Description

Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area, Quebec, Canada

Adults have brown upperparts with a light brown belly and flanks and a white throat and breast. The back is black with white stripes. They have a dark cap with a white line over the eyes and a short thin bill.

The male's song is a loud gurgle used to declare ownership of territory; western males have a more varied repertoire.

This little bird is native to Canada, Mexico, and the United States.Their breeding habitat is marshes with tall vegetation such as cattails across North America. In the western United States, some birds are permanent residents. Other birds migrate to marshes and salt marshes in the southern United States and Mexico. their non-breeding range is in the southern United States going into Mexico and their breeding range is in the northeastern United States going into Canada.[5]

These birds forage actively in vegetation, sometimes flying up to catch insects in flight. They mainly eat insects, also spiders and snails.

The nest is an oval lump attached to marsh vegetation, entered from the side. The clutch is normally four to six eggs, though the number can range from three to ten.[6] The male builds many unused nests in his territory. A hypothesis of the possible reason to why males build multiple "dummy" nests in their territory is that they are courting areas and that the females construct the "breeding nest", where she lays the eggs in.[7] He may puncture the eggs and fatally peck the nestlings of other birds nesting nearby, including his own species (even his own offspring) and red-winged blackbirds, yellow-headed blackbirds, and least bitterns.[8] Marsh wren young can get infected by pathogenic larvae.[9] The Blowfly larvae infect the young by subdermal myiasis-induced lesions and subsequent sepsis.[10] The larvae form a wound in the young by rasping and expanding a hole in their skin to create blood flow and feed on the blood of the hosts' body.[11] This bird is still common, although its numbers have declined with the loss of suitable wetland habitat. Wholesale draining of marshes will lead to local extinction. Still, this species is widespread enough not to qualify as threatened according to the IUCN.

References

  1. ↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Cistothorus palustris". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. ↑ Wilson, Alexander (1810). American ornithology, or, The natural history of the birds of the United States. Volume 2. Philadelphia: Bradford and Inskeep. pp. 58–60, Plate 12 fig. 4.
  3. ↑ Cabanis, Jean (1850). Museum Heineanum : Verzeichniss der ornithologischen Sammlung des Oberamtmann Ferdinand Heine, auf Gut St. Burchard vor Halberstadt (in German). Volume 1. Halbertstadt: In Commission bei R. Frantz. p. 77.
  4. ↑ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2017). "Dapple-throats, sugarbirds, fairy-bluebirds, kinglets, hyliotas, wrens & gnatcatchers". World Bird List Version 7.3. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
  5. ↑ Cornell All About Birds. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Marsh_Wren/lifehistory
  6. ↑ "All About Birds: Marsh Wren". Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 2008-07-20.
  7. ↑ Metz, Karen J. “The Enigma of Multiple Nest Building by Male Marsh Wrens.” Jan. 1991, pp. 170–173.
  8. ↑ Kroodsma, Donald E.; Verner, Jared (1997). A. Poole, ed. "Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris)". The Birds of North America Online. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 2013-03-03.
  9. ↑ Warren, Yvonne. “Protocalliphora Braueri (Diptera: Calliphoridae) Induced Pathogenesis in a Brood of Marsh Wren (Cistothorus Palustris) Young.” Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 17 Mar. 1993, www.jwildlifedis.org/doi/10.7589/0090-3558-30.1.107.
  10. ↑ Warren, Yvonne. “Protocalliphora Braueri (Diptera: Calliphoridae) Induced Pathogenesis in a Brood of Marsh Wren (Cistothorus Palustris) Young.” Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 17 Mar. 1993, www.jwildlifedis.org/doi/10.7589/0090-3558-30.1.107.
  11. ↑ Warren, Yvonne. “Protocalliphora Braueri (Diptera: Calliphoridae) Induced Pathogenesis in a Brood of Marsh Wren (Cistothorus Palustris) Young.” Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 17 Mar. 1993, www.jwildlifedis.org/doi/10.7589/0090-3558-30.1.107.
  • Henninger, W.F. (1906): A preliminary list of the birds of Seneca County, Ohio. Wilson Bull. 18(2): 47-60. DjVu fulltext PDF fulltext
  • Warren, Yvonne. “Protocalliphora Braueri (Diptera: Calliphoridae) Induced Pathogenesis in a Brood of Marsh Wren (Cistothorus Palustris) Young.” Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 17 Mar. 1993, www.jwildlifedis.org/doi/10.7589/0090-3558-30.1.107.

Further reading

  • Luttrell, Sarah A.M.; Lohr, Bernard (2018). "Geographic variation in call structure, likelihood, and call-song associations across subspecies boundaries, migratory patterns, and habitat types in the Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris)". The Auk. 135 (1): 127–151. doi:10.1642/AUK-17-110.1.
  • Identification tips - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
  • "Marsh wren media". Internet Bird Collection.
  • Marsh wren photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel University)
  • Interactive range map of Cistothorus palustris at IUCN Red List maps
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