Adult. Photo: Kathryn Cubert/Audubon Photography Awards
Cistothorus platensis
| Conservation status | Local numbers vary from year to year; overall population in North America apparently has been declining in recent decades, but reasons are poorly understood. |
|---|---|
| Family | Wrens |
| Habitat | Grassy marshes, sedgy meadows. Breeds mostly in damp meadows of grass or sedges, also in lush hayfields and other fields with dense low growth and scattered bushes. Generally not in deep-water marsh, but may be along their grassy edges. Winters in rank weedy meadows, coastal prairies. |
Forages very low in dense low growth of sedges and grass, creeping about and searching for insects among the vegetation and on the ground. May sometimes make short flights to catch insects in the air.
4-8. White, unmarked. Incubation is by female only, about 14 days. Young: Both parents feed young but female may do more. Young leave nest about 12-14 days after hatching.
Both parents feed young but female may do more. Young leave nest about 12-14 days after hatching.
Mostly insects. Diet is not known in detail, but feeds on a wide variety of insects including true bugs, beetles, moths, caterpillars, grasshoppers, ants, flies, and many others. Also eats many spiders.
Very erratic in its choice of nesting territory, little colonies springing up one year and vacated the next. One male may have more than one mate. Adults often puncture the eggs of other birds nesting nearby (including those of other Sedge Wrens). Nest: Male may build several incomplete "dummy" nests that are never used. Real nest is built very low among standing grass or sedges in wet meadow, up to 3' above the ground, usually hard to find. Nest is a round globular ball woven of sedges and grasses, with a small entrance on the side. The inside is lined with fine grass, plant down, animal hair, feathers.
Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.
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