BREEDING BIRDS: WRENTIT

WRENTIT

(Chamaea fasciata)

Description: A perky little brown bird with a long, rounded tail, usually cocked. Plumage varies from reddish-brown in northern populations to grayish in

southern birds. Very distinct cream-colored eyes and lightly streaked buffy breast.

Habitat: Common resident of chaparral, scrub, well-planted suburban areas.

Diet: Includes spiders; adults feed heavily on fruit, especially when insects are scarce in fall and winter. Young are fed only insects.

Call: Male’s loud song, sung year-round, begins with a series of accelerating staccato notes and runs into a descending trill: pit-pit-pit-tr-r-r-r. Female’s song lacks trill.

Nest: Base of cobwebs supporting coarse bark, with deep cup of fine bark, lined with fine fibers and hair.

Eggs: Pale greenish-blue, unmarked.

Natural history notes: The bouncing Ping-Pong ball song is heard much more often than the bird is seen; it is secretive in thick undergrowth. Birds are extremely sedentary. They mate for life and remain in 1- to 2 1/2-acre areas. Young still beg from adults after 30 to 35 days.

Breeding bird atlas: To report bird-breeding activity in your neighborhood, or to get information on the breeding bird atlas (now in its fifth and final year), call Sea and Sage Audubon Society member Nancy Kenyon, (714) 786-3160.

Note: Map is divided into 5-kilometer squares so that Audubon Society volunteers can more easily survey areas on a regular basis.

Sources: Sea and Sage Audubon Society; “The Birder’s Handbook,” Ehrlich, Dobkin and Wheye, Fireside Books (1988); “Field Guide to the Birds of North America,” National Geographic Society (1987); “Birds of Southern California: Status and Distribution,” Garrett and Dunn, Los Angeles Audubon Society (1981).