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Wrentit | Chamaea fasciata
Winterkoningmees | Camea
The Wrentit is a small, brown-grey songbird with a long, often cocked tail and a pale eye, living almost entirely in dense scrub. It is heard far more often than seen. In the guide area it occurs only in north-western Baja California.
Voice
The male's song is a series of clear, short notes that speed up and end in a trill, like a bouncing ball; the female sings a shorter series without the acceleration. The call is a dry, purring rattle. It sings throughout the year.
Recording: Denise Wight — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
14–15 cm, with a long, rounded tail often held cocked. Plumage uniformly grey-brown, breast slightly paler, buffy and finely streaked dark. Iris pale, creamy white to yellowish, conspicuous in the dark face. Bill short and slightly curved. Wings short and round. Sexes alike.
Confusion species
Bewick's Wren Thryomanes bewickii has a white supercilium, a longer, thinner bill and a tail with white corners. Bushtit Psaltriparus minimus is much smaller, with a stubby bill, and lives in flocks. California Gnatcatcher Polioptila californica is slimmer and greyer, with a black-and-white tail.
Habitat
Chaparral, coastal sage scrub and dense bushes along streams. It eats insects, spiders and in winter also berries. Pairs stay year-round in a small, fixed territory.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
In the guide area only in north-western Baja California. Outside the guide area along the Pacific side of the United States, from Oregon to southern California.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Best found by listening for the song and then waiting patiently until the bird briefly appears at the edge of a bush.
Conservation status
Not threatened. In the guide area restricted to a small area in north-western Baja California; outside the guide area common in suitable scrub.
Scientific name
Chamaea fasciata | (Gambel, 1845)
Gambel described the species in 1845 as Parus fasciatus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Chamaea was introduced in 1847 by Gambel. Chamaea is from Greek khamai 'on the ground', after its skulking life low in dense scrub. fasciata is Late Latin for 'banded', from fascia 'band', after the fine barring on the tail. The specimen the first description was based on came from Monterey, California, USA.