Marsh Wren

The marsh wren (Cistothorus palustris) is a small North American songbird of the wren family, Troglodytidae.

This little bird is native to Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Their breeding habitat is marshes with tall vegetation such as cattails across North America. In the western United States, some birds are permanent residents. Other birds migrate to marshes and salt marshes in the southern United States and Mexico.

These birds forage actively in vegetation close to the water, occasionally flying up to catch insects in flight. They mainly eat insects, also spiders and snails. In California, 53 Western Marsh Wren stomachs were examined which showed that the birds consume bugs, caterpillars and chrysalids, beetles, ants and wasps, spiders, carabids and coccinellids, along with various other flies, grasshoppers, dragonflies and unidentifiable insects.