{"id":57781,"date":"2018-03-29T05:40:07","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T11:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=57781"},"modified":"2018-03-29T05:40:07","modified_gmt":"2018-03-29T11:40:07","slug":"male-marsh-wren-building-one-of-his-dummy-nests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/29\/male-marsh-wren-building-one-of-his-dummy-nests\/","title":{"rendered":"Male Marsh Wren Building One Of His Dummy Nests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two days ago I spent an hour and 45 minutes attempting<\/em> to photograph a male Marsh Wren building one of his “dummy” nests at Bear River MBR. I know he was a male because only males sing and this fella was an enthusiastic\u00a0and glorious singer. I’m\u00a0quite\u00a0confident the nest was a dummy nest rather than the one that will eventually be used for\u00a0brooding eggs\u00a0for reasons I’ll get into later.<\/p>\n

Like all Marsh Wrens he was a very difficult subject to photograph well. These birds are small and they’re extremely fast. Throw in their preferred habitat of dense cattail and bulrush marshes and you have a very difficult bird to get a clear shot of.<\/p>\n

All of the following images are of the same male and I’m presenting them in the order they were taken in order\u00a0to provide the reader a sense of the process of nest-building. That said, we never do see the actual nest because it was buried in a thick mass of cattails.<\/p>\n

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1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

I barely spotted this bird in the cattails far behind me and then backed up my pickup to see if he’d stick around. Unlike most wrens he did. He did quite a bit of singing soon after I arrived but after\u00a0a while\u00a0he spent\u00a0the vast majority\u00a0of his\u00a0time\u00a0constructing the nest and significantly less of it in melodic pursuits. That fact made me wonder if his initial\u00a0singing was a specific territorial defense directed at\u00a0me and my pickup but he soon got used to my presence and seemed to completely ignore me.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned, only males sing. Interestingly, when captive females are given supplemental testosterone they can produce a laborious series of “buzzes” but nothing resembling the song of the male.<\/p>\n

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1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

His preferred nesting material was pieces of last year’s cattail leaves and they were always wet. They prefer them wet because that makes them soft, pliable and easier to weave into their nest (human basket weavers often use wet materials for the same reason).<\/p>\n

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1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

His chosen construction materials varied significantly in overall size and length. This one was so long I couldn’t keep it all in frame. When he took off toward the nest with it I tried to photograph him in flight.<\/p>\n

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1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

But even when carrying a load that slowed him down a little he was so fast that I didn’t get him quite sharp. I thought it was a bit of a victory just keeping him in frame without clipping any body parts although I had no chance at all of avoiding cutting off part of the nesting material.<\/p>\n

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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

As I said he usually preferred wet cattail leaves but occasionally he collected dry cattail fluff instead. He presumably used the fluff to line the interior nest cup so he wouldn’t want it to be wet and matted down.\u00a0Marsh Wrens\u00a0also use down feathers for this purpose.<\/p>\n

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1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

I was constantly trying to get flight shots and this is the only one I would really call a success. Have I mentioned previously that Marsh Wrens are fast!<\/em><\/p>\n

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1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

He was definitely picky about his choice of sopping-wet cattail leaves for the nest. After picking this one up at the water’s edge he landed here and manipulated it with his bill for a few seconds but then he…<\/p>\n

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1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

rejected and dropped it. Here we see it still falling beneath his right foot.<\/p>\n

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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Toward the end of my time with him he took a break from construction and performed a raucous little melody in a classic spread-eagle pose for wrens.<\/p>\n

Here’s some fascinating facts about Marsh Wren nests and their construction:<\/p>\n