Today I wanted to share an interesting and humorous little bit of behavior my father and I observed from a Carolina wren while we were hiking the trails of a local state park. We had just exited the woods and the trail then paralleled the entrance road, the two being separated by a guard rail to protect any hikers.

As I exited the woods I noticed a small wren sitting atop one of the guard rail posts, its tail tilted upward in that characteristic wren fashion, with their fast little movements. My father and I stopped and I attempted to capture a few photographs. The light wasn’t ideal and I didn’t have as long a lens as I’d have liked for this subject, but I still wanted to capture any images I could. I love wrens and sometimes they do interesting things. This one didn’t disappoint.

I wouldn’t say the wren was overly afraid of us, but at the same time it obviously wanted a little more space, so it hopped onto the guard rail facing us and then quickly hopped down into the bottom hollow of the inside of the guard rail, watching us the entire time. When it moved into the hollow between the guard rail and the post I quickly moved a little closer. Doing this I could get closer without it seeing me move. Sometimes this lets you get closer to a subject. It’s similar to waiting until a diving duck dives under water before moving closer to the pond. Only move when the wildlife doesn’t see you.

When it popped back out into the open, still in the bottom hollow of the guard rail, it paused and looked our way. It hopped on to the next guard rail post and went through that little gap. Once again, I moved to keep up with it, but only moving while it was hidden behind the post.

I captured one final image of it pausing before entering the next hollow. After it emerged from the other side it flew up into the nearby trees where it met up with what appeared to be two or three more Carolina wrens.

Watching it hop along that guard rail hollow, and moving between guard rail and post, was such an interesting behavior and one we thoroughly enjoyed watching. I hope you’ve enjoyed this little retelling of the experience.

Have you seen similar behavior from wrens or other birds?

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