While a phenomenal singer, as all wrens tend to be, the House wren is maybe better known as a homebuilder. John James Audubon writes:
“it being satisfied with any crevice or hole in the walls, the sill of a window, the eaves, the stable, the barn, or the upper side of a piece of timber, under the roof of a piazza. Now and then, its nest may be seen in the hollow branch of an apple tree. I knew of one in the pocket of an old broken-down carriage, and many in such an old hat as you see represented in the plate, the little creatures anxiously peeping out or hanging to the side of the hat, to meet their mother, who has just arrived with a spider, whilst the male is on the lookout, ready to interpose should any intruder come near. The same nest is often resorted to for several successive years, merely receiving a little mending.”
Another chance for Audubon to observe closely a House wren was when he and his wife, Lucy, were visiting her family farm in Pennsylvania just outside of Philadelphia. The name of the farm was Fatland Ford: “a pair of these birds had formed a nest, and the female was sitting in a hole of the wall, within a few inches of my (literally so-called) drawing-room. The male was continually singing within a few feet of my wife and myself, whilst I was engaged in portraying birds of other species. When the window was open, its company was extremely agreeable, as was its little song, which continually reminded us of its happy life.” Then came the moment when Audubon could resist no longer and shut the window behind the happy bird. He caught the wren, made a drawing of the bird while holding it in his hand, opened the window, and let the bird go. “This, however, made it more cautious, and it never again ventured within the window although it sang and looked at us as at first.”