The Marsh Wren is a small, energetic bird of cattail and bulrush marshes, more often heard than seen as it clambers up reed stems, tail cocked, and bursts into a rapid, gurgling, mechanical song that rattles across the wetland day and night. Warm brown with a boldly streaked black-and-white back and a crisp white eyebrow, it clings sideways to the reeds, feet gripping two separate stems, and vanishes into the vegetation at the slightest disturbance.
Male Marsh Wrens are prodigious nest builders, weaving many woven, football-shaped "dummy" nests among the reeds in addition to the one the female will use — a display of vigor that helps attract mates. They are also fiercely competitive, and males will destroy the eggs of other marsh-nesting birds, including other Marsh Wrens, near their territories. In Michigan they breed in dense freshwater marshes and are best detected by their chattering song rising from the cattails on a summer morning or evening.
Gleans insects, spiders, and aquatic invertebrates from marsh vegetation and the water's surface, working through cattails and bulrushes for beetles, flies, and larvae. It forages low in the wetland, picking prey from stems, leaves, and the water among the reeds.
That fast, mechanical, chattering, gurgling song — often heard day and night — is a male Marsh Wren singing from the reeds. It is one of the characteristic sounds of a summer cattail marsh.
Male Marsh Wrens weave numerous football-shaped "dummy" nests in their territory in addition to the one used for eggs. The extra nests may help attract females, confuse predators, or serve as roosts.
In dense cattail and bulrush marshes, where it clings to reed stems with its tail cocked. It is easiest to detect by song, since it stays hidden in the vegetation and flushes only briefly.
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