Sedge wren, known in South America as the Grass Wren, and formerly known as the Short-billed Marsh Wren, Cistothorus platensis, photographed at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Chambers and Galveston counties, Texas, USA.
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 9 October 2010 [with binoculars].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/320s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400
Question: This cute little North American bird has a common name that has been applied to a variety of unrelated avian taxa. Can you tell me more about this?
Response: This is a Sedge wren, known in South America as the Grass Wren, Cistothorus platensis. There are about 80 species of true wrens in approximately 20 genera. Interestingly, only one species of Troglodytes wren occurs in the Old World, where it is known simply as the "wren." This species, which is known as the Winter Wren in North America, is where the name originated.
However, the name "wren" has been confusingly applied to a wide variety of unrelated songbird families throughout the world. In Europe, species of Regulus are commonly known as "wrens" -- the Firecrest and Goldcrest are called the "fire-crested wren" and "golden-crested wren", respectively. The name, "wren," has also been given to species in the Australasian family Maluridae, in the New Zealand family Acanthisittidae, and permutations of that name are given to the antwrens (family Thamnophilidae) and the wren-babblers (family Timaliidae).
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