[All photographs copyright, Gary Nunn 2012] – I am a big fan of wrens so when a Troglodytes species was reported by local birder Magill Weber at the Gilbert Water Ranch, Phoenix, AZ I headed over there to see if I could relocate it. The directions were accurate and within a minute of getting to the Honeybee Camp, at the north end of pond 2, up popped this strident calling little Winter Wren Troglodytes hiemalis. It called almost constantly during the time it was visible. The call was the characteristic deeper and sharp cluck, repeated quickly when excited, of this eastern species.

The scold or alarm call of this wren species is distinctive and quite a bit richer in overall harshness, or complexity you could say, than its congener the Pacific Wren. To my ear the Winter Wren sounds more like a cluck sound than a chip sound. I found some good calls on Xeno-Canto that are well matched to the bird seen and heard today. Here is a very close match to the sound it made: