The banded wren (''Thryophilus pleurostictus'') is a small

songbird A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 500 ...

of the

wren Wrens are a family of brown passerine birds in the predominantly New World family Troglodytidae. The family includes 88 species divided into 19 genera. Only the Eurasian wren occurs in the Old World, where, in Anglophone regions, it is commonly ...

family. It is a resident breeding species from central Mexico to Costa Rica. It was formerly placed in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

''Thryothorus'' (Mann et al., 2006). This wren breeds in lowlands and foothills from sea level up to 800 m altitude in open or scrubby woodland, including forest clearings and second growth. It mainly occurs on the Pacific side of the central mountain ranges. Its flask-shaped nest has a long entrance tube angled downward and is lined with fine grasses. It is constructed 1–2.5 m high in a fork of a thorny tree or shrub, often close to a

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

nest. The female alone incubates the three or four unspotted white or pale greenish-blue eggs for about two weeks to hatching, and the young fledge in about the same length of time again. The adult banded wren is 13.5 cm long and weighs 20 g. It has chestnut brown upperparts, strong white supercilia, a brown stripe through the eye and black streaking on the white cheeks. The underparts are white with much black barring on the lower belly and flanks. The wings and tail are barred with black. Young birds have duller upperparts and dull white underparts, faintly mottled with dusky brown. The call of this species is a nasal ''cherrrt'' or a rattle and roll, ''kert rrruk kert rrruk'', and the melodious and complex song is a mix of clear whistles and musical trills. The banded wren forages actively in low vegetation or sometimes on the ground in pairs or family groups. It eats mainly eats

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

s and other

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

References

*Mann, Nigel I.; Barker, F. Keith; Graves, Jeff A.; Dingess-Mann, Kimberly A. & Slater, Peter J. B. (2006): Molecular data delineate four genera of "Thryothorus" wrens. ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' 40: 750–759. (HTML abstract) *Stiles, F. Gary & Skutch, Alexander Frank (1989): ''A guide to the birds of Costa Rica''. Comistock, Ithaca.

External links

Research on the song
{{Taxonbar, from=Q4763567 banded wren Birds of Mexico Birds of Guatemala Birds of El Salvador Birds of Nicaragua Birds of Costa Rica banded wren banded wren