Cactus Wren

Description:

The Interior adult has black-and-white streaked reddish-brown back, dark crown with distinctive white stripe over eye, white chin, and heavily spotted white underparts with buff wash on sides and belly. Wings and tail are dark with white bars on sides. Bill is long and slightly decurved. Sexes are similar. Juvenile has fewer and paler breast spots and shorter tail. The Coastal adult is similar to the Interior adult with a darker wash on sides and belly.

Habitat:

Tohono Chul Park is a 49-acre nature preserve in Casas Adobes, a suburb of Tucson, Arizona, United States.

Notes:

The cactus wren forages for food on the ground. It uses its long bill to turn over things on the ground. It eats ants, beetles, grasshoppers, wasps, fruits and seeds. Sometimes it will eat small frogs and lizards. It is adapted for life in the desert and gets most of the water it needs to survive from the food it eats.