Wren

wren

1. any small brown passerine songbird of the chiefly American family Troglodytidae, esp Troglodytes troglodytes (wren in Britain, winter wren in the US and Canada). They have a slender bill and feed on insects

2. any of various similar birds of the families Muscicapidae (Australian warblers), Xenicidae (New Zealand wrens), etc.

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Wren

Sir Christopher. 1632--1723, English architect. He designed St Paul's Cathedral and over 50 other London churches after the Great Fire as well as many secular buildings

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

wren

[ren]

(vertebrate zoology)

Any of the various small brown singing birds in the family Troglodytidae; they are insectivorous and tend to inhabit dense, low vegetation.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Wren

 

(Troglodytes troglodytes), a bird of the family Troglodytidae of the order Passeriformes. The body length measures 10−12 cm long; the bird weighs 8–11 g. The plumage is grayish brown.

The wren is distributed in Europe, North Africa, Asia, and North America. In the USSR it is found from the western borders to the Kuril Islands (except Western and Central Siberia). In the northern part of its area of distribution it is a migratory bird, while in the south it is not. The wren stays in coniferous and leafy forests in dense underbrush. In the mountains of Middle Asia and on the Komandorskie and Kuril islands it is found on cliffs and in sparse thickets. The nest is globular, with a side entrance. The clutch contains six or seven eggs, which are white with reddish spots. The wren incubates the eggs 14–15 days. It feeds primarily on spiders and small insects; it also eats seeds and berries.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.