![]() She finds it “despicable.”īut it is neither good nor bad. I suspect many people would agree with my wife’s opinion of house wren’s aggressive territorial behavior. I don’t know that other species avoid building nests near active house wren cavities, but they should. In addition to the robin egg I described earlier, I’ve seen eggs of phoebes, towhees, cardinals and song sparrows similarly destroyed. ![]() But sometimes they even puncture eggs in nests of open, cup nesting species. It’s a way to “own” all the cavities within their territory. House wrens usually confine this nasty behavior to other cavity nesters. Sometimes they then remove the egg from of the nest and drop it some distance away. This kills the developing embryos and forces the “intruders” to nest again elsewhere. When house wrens find a nest in another cavity near their own, they often enter the cavity while it’s unoccupied and puncture the eggs. Within their small territory of an acre or so, they don’t like any other birds nesting nearby. While most birds limit their aggression to members of their own species, house wrens are interspecifically antisocial. House wrens are extremely territorial and aggressive. It was as if someone had plunged an ice pick through the shell. It was perfect, except for a small puncture on the side. Then I picked up the egg and examined it more closely. I thought perhaps wind from a recent storm had blown down a nest from an overhead crotch. We immediately scanned the branches over ahead, but could not find a nest. ![]() It was a pure blue robin’s egg in seemingly pristine condition. As my wife and I emerged from the woods a few evenings ago, I noticed a patch of blue on the trail ahead.
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