Youngsters
get to know the young hero and the adventures
that carry him toward manhood. As they come to know Jeremiah as a friend who would
understand their own growing pains, they look forward to each book in the
series.
Teachers
will Achieve..
Teachers will appreciate the ways
that Jeremiah Stokely novels, kits, and activities make literature
meaningful to children. Teachers can download free classroom idea
packets to hold a hand-on workshop based on each book.
Click the >Play button
to listen to the bird's song!
House Wren (Troglodytes
troglodytes)
Length 4˝ in., wingspan 6 in., Family Troglodytidae
The House Wren is the small, familiar, gray-brown wren
of gardens, hedges and brushy woods. This plainest of all wrens has the
long, down-curved beak and short, upturned tail of its family. Its wings are
faintly barred with black, and its face lacks the Carolina’s white
eye-stripe. These wrens eat mostly insects, but will also eat spiders and
snails. They are lively and curious, flitting from branch to branch in
search of insects on leaves and tree bark.
The song of the House Wren is extremely variable, a
rapid series of rattles and trills that ends in a descending series of
bubbly trills. Its scold call is a nasal whine or mew.
House Wrens winter in the southeastern states and
Mexico. In spring, males arrive at nesting grounds in the U.S. and western
Canada before females. Each male defends an area against other males by
singing and scolding loudly. He builds several incomplete nests of twigs in
anticipation of the female’s arrival. In courtship, he perches near her,
fluttering his wings and singing. She chooses a nest and completes it with
soft grass, hair or feathers. House Wrens will nest in any cavity, from old
woodpecker holes in trees to drainpipes and shoes. They also nest in manmade
birdhouses. The female’s six to eight speckled white eggs hatch in 13 to 15
days. Both parents feed the young, although the female may leave them in the
care of the male and mate with another male to raise a second brood in
another nest. A male sometimes has two mates. Males often puncture the eggs
or kill the young of other species nesting too near to eliminate competition
for food.
In the 19th century, the House Wren
population declined where the House Sparrow was introduced from England,
probably due to competition for nest sites. Today House Wren populations are
extensive.
