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Pacific Wren

Troglodytes pacificus

Notes:

A pair of Pacific Wrens had been flying in and out of a knot-hole, tending a nest high above a porch in a high traffic area. One morning, two baby wrens appeared on the porch and would be imminently trampled by humans without intervention. I placed them in an open container and attempted to move them into a wooded area about 40 feet away. Mom couldn't find them. I moved them back and mom found them just fine. I then moved the container about 5 feet away. When mom returned with food, she returned to the spot where the babies used to be, and then listened for their cries until she found them again. I repeated this 5-foot movement process until we reached the safety of the wooded area. The mother proceeded to continue feeding the babies (even when they were in my hand!) throughout the day. After a couple of hours, the babies were able to fly for short distances and I knew they would be OK. I named them Romulus and Remus. About 6 hours after the original porch-drop of Romulus and Remus, I found another wee nestling on the same porch. Named him Troy. I repeated the same procedure to get him into the protection of the woods, and monitored the family for the rest of the day. Mom was very comfortable with my presence at this point, but dad would sound the alarm and try to draw the babies away whenever both he and I were in the same area. By nightfall, Troy had not yet achieved flight of even short distances. The rest of the family was roosting high in a tree, but Troy was stuck on the ground. There were feral house cats in the area, and Troy would make an easy snack if he couldn't make it to safety. We fashioned a bird elevator out of a pool cleaning brush. We put moss on the bristles, and nestled Troy into his mossy seat, then extended the brush up the trunk of the tree where the rest of his family was. It took a few attempts, but on the third try, we got Troy close enough to the high branch that he could hop onto it to spend the night with mom, dad, and his two brothers. I was able to find the whole family every day for several days after. I keep hoping that someday they'll come back to visit me. The 4th picture above shows mom feeding one of the babies. The babies were remarkably large compared to the parents.

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1 Comment

Ava T-B
Ava T-B 9 years ago

What a wonderful story! Thanks for being so caring.

Lafcadio
Spotted by
Lafcadio

Oregon, USA

Spotted on May 16, 2013
Submitted on Oct 12, 2014

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