The ochraceous wren (''Troglodytes ochraceus'') 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 in

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

, and

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 23 May 2021. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved May 24, 2021

Taxonomy and systematics

The ochraceous wren was previously considered to be a subspecies of

mountain wren The mountain wren (''Troglodytes solstitialis'') is a species of bird in the family Troglodytidae. It is found in the Andes of northwestern Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and western Venezuela. Taxonomy and systematics The mount ...

(''Troglodytes solstitialis'').Kroodsma, D. E. and D. Brewer (2020). Ochraceous Wren (''Troglodytes ochraceus''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.ochwre1.01 retrieved July 13, 2021 The

International Ornithological Committee The International Ornithologists' Union, formerly known as the International Ornithological Committee, is a group of about 200 international ornithologists, and is responsible for the International Ornithological Congress and other international ...

(IOC) recognizes two subspecies, the nominate ''Troglodytes ochraceus ochraceus'' and ''T. o. festinus''. The

Cornell Lab of Ornithology The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a member-supported unit of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, which studies birds and other wildlife. It is housed in the Imogene Powers Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity in Sapsucker Woods Sanctuar ...

's ''Birds of the World'' and the

Clements taxonomy ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World'' is a book by Jim Clements which presents a list of the bird species of the world. The most recent printed version is the sixth edition (2007), but has been updated yearly, the last version in 2022 ...

split ''T. o. ligea'' from the nominate subspecies.Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ Retrieved August 15, 2019

Description

The adult ochraceous wren is long and weighs . The nominate subspecies ''

sensu stricto ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular co ...

'' has a rich medium brown crown and back with a rufous cast to the rump. The tail is brown with blackish bars. It has a bold yellowish buff

supercilium The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also ...

that extends to the nape. Its chin, throat, and upper chest are buffy brown, its lower breast and upper belly buffy white, and its flanks and lower belly darker buffy brown. ''T. o. ligea'', when treated separately, is duller than the nominate and has a heavier bill. ''T. o. festinus'' is smaller and lighter below than the nominate and also has a larger bill.

Distribution and habitat

According to the IOC, the nominate subspecies of ochraceous wren is found in the Costa Rica highlands from the

Tilarán Mountains Costa Rica is located on the Central American Isthmus, surrounding the point 10° north of the equator and 84° west of the prime meridian. It has 212 km of Caribbean Sea coastline and 1,016 on the North Pacific Ocean. The area is 51,100&nb ...

to the Talamanca ranges and in western and central Panama. Cornell and Clements treat the Panamanian population as ''T. o. ligea'' and confine ''T. o. ochraceus'' to Costa Rica. All three place ''T. o. festinus'' in eastern Panama; Cornell, Clements, and the South American Classification Committee of the

American Ornithological Society The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...

(SACC/AOS) note its occurrence in adjacent northwestern Colombia as well. The ochraceous wren primarily inhabits wet

epiphyte An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...

-laden

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

, and also semi-open areas such as woodland edges, tall second growth, and pastures with trees. In elevation it usually ranges between but has occasionally been recorded as low as and as high as .

Behavior

Feeding

The ochraceous wren mostly forages on mossy tree trunks and in

s. Its prey is small invertebrates.

Breeding

The ochraceous wren's nesting period apparently spans from April to July in Costa Rica. Skutch (1960) found three nests; all were constructed in a mass of epiphytes and debris on a hanging, partially detached, branch above ground. Families of two adults and two young have been observered.

Vocalization

The ochraceous wren's song is "a rather subdued medley of varied liquid trills and high, thin slurred whistles" and it calls "a rolling, thin high-pitched 'peeer' or 'peeew' and low, weak 'churr'."

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed the ochraceous wren as being of Least Concern. Though its population has not been quantified, it is believed to be fairly common, and it occurs in several national parks and biological reserves.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2224793

ochraceous wren The ochraceous wren (''Troglodytes ochraceus'') is a small songbird of the wren family. It is a resident breeding species in Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane ...

Birds of the Talamancan montane forests

Taxa named by Robert Ridgway