Plate 179 – Wood Wren

The easternmost city in the United States is located where the Pennamaquan River in Maine flows through Cobscook Bay before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. The name of the city is called Eastport. While certainly to the east, the city as a port is marginal at best. The city is guarded by innumerable rocky islands, crushing seas, sub-zero wind chill factors, and a tide that swings 25 feet. John James Audubon and his family safely arrived at the docks of Eastport on May 7, 1833. Among the birds that Audubon first noted seeing in Eastport were Barn swallows (Plate 173), “in company with the Republican or Cliff Swallow, pursuing its different avocations.” While the Barn swallow and Cliff swallow (Plate 68) might have been familiar to Audubon, others started to emerge that were much less so. About 10 miles outside of Eastport, the sons of Audubon, Victor and John Woodhouse, felled a wren that their father was at a loss to identify. A few weeks later near Dennysville, more specimens of the bird were collected. From these specimens Audubon drew for Birds of America what he named the Wood Wren. While in many ways the bird appears similar to the House wren (Plate 83), Audubon emphasizes differences between the size of the eye, the coloring of the eye line, the position of the tail, and even the appearance of the eggs that the bird lays. As it currently stands, any bird that might fit the depiction and description of a Wood Wren in Birds of America is nothing more than a House wren.