Watching Canyon Wren Fledglings

Fledgling Canyon Wren. Gouache and watercolor.

A year or so ago, I was out walking around the cliffs behind the Montezuma County Fairground. I came across a pair of adult Canyon Wrens and their three fledglings.

Fledgling Canyon Wren in between bouts of begging.

Usually I just hear Canyon Wrens - they make a sort of descending “Hah hah hah hah…” call, it sounds for all the world like they are laughing. And since I’m usually plodding along (“hiking”) when I hear the call, there is good chance that the birds actually are laughing.

So I’m very used to hearing these birds - but not at all used to seeing them.

Fledgling Canyon Wren. The wing fluttering is part of the bird’s begging display. I think the jumping-up-and down is for emphasis.

The fledglings were standing around with imperious expressions on their faces, and occasionally fluttering their wings, jumping up and down, and loudly begging.

Adult Canyon Wren.

The parents were frantically scouring the cliff face for food, trying to keep the babies quiet. The parents would dart away and disappear into rock crevices, then come racing back when they found an insect.

Adult Canyon Wren bringing a moth back to the fledglings.

The fledglings followed along behind the parents in a loose mob.

 Adult (right) feeding a moth to a fledgling Canyon Wren (right). This taking place on a vertical rock face - out the grappling hooks these guys have for feet

An interesting thing about watching thsee birds - the angle of the rock on which they would perch didn’t seem to matter to them. They seemed every bit as happy perching on a vertical rock face as on a horizontal one. They had huge, grappling-hook style feet that splayed out when they were hanginging on a rock face.