On March 23, 1837, John James Audubon, his son John Woodhouse Audubon, and an important contributor to Birds of America, Edward Harris, left New Orleans aboard a revenue cutter named Campbell to explore the coast of Texas. On April 1, Campbell sailed to the mouth of the Mississippi River and through “the south-west pass of the Mississippi.” At the present-day Southwest Pass, Audubon described the Marsh wren as “very abundant, in full song, and breeding.” Audubon also noted where “The males are extremely pugnacious, and chase each other with great animosity, until one or other has been forced to give way. This disposition is the more remarkable, as these birds build their nests quite close to each other. I have seen several dozen of these nests in the course of a morning ramble, in a piece of marsh not exceeding forty or fifty acres.”
Scientists have since determined that Audubon was not seeing Marsh wrens nesting close together but nests built as decoys or “dummy nests.” When not sorting out territories for nest building, deceiving predators with dummy nests, and searching for food for themselves and their young, Audubon noted hearing the Marsh wren singing throughout the day and night. As far as homebuilding goes, there are few that could match the efforts of the Marsh wren.