Rock Wren (Salpinctes obsoletus) as their name suggests are most common on rocky slopes and around small mountains. They are among the most commonly encountered birds in the Sonoran Desert being that they are a year around resident, though some individuals will migrate in the summer to Southwestern Canada.
The Rock Wren feeds mostly on arthropods, spiders and other insects. They forage on the ground of dry places, steep banks and cliff with cracks and openings. Rock Wren often use their long bills to probe narrow crevices for prey. Also they have been known to forage in low vegetation or the base of tree trunks.
Used for courting the male Rock wren has a large song repertoire of 100 or more song types, many of which they learned from their neighbors. The nesting site is placed in cavity or crevice in or among rocks; rarely in a low tree cavity. Nest is a cup built with grass, bits of wood, bark, moss, twigs, and roots, lined with fine material such as hair, wool, and spider silk. Clutch size commonly 5-6 but sometimes 4-8. The female typically incubation the eggs for 14 to 16 days. Young are fed by both parents for about 14 to 16 days. Once the young leave the nest they may remain at the parent’s territory for about 4 more weeks until able to go off on their own
The rock wren (Salpinctes obsoletus) is a small songbird of the wren family native to western North America, Mexico and Central America. It is the only species in the genus Salpinctes.
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They have grey-brown upperparts with small black and white spots and pale grey underparts with a light brown rump. Additional distinctive features include a light grey line over the eye, a long slightly decurved thin bill, a long barred tail and dark legs. They actively hunt on the ground, around and under objects, probing with their bill as their extraction tool. They mainly eat insects and spiders. Its song is a trill that becomes more varied during the nesting season. These birds are permanent residents in the south of their range, but northern populations migrate to warmer areas from the central United States and southwest Canada southwards. They are occasional vagrants in the eastern United States. During the breeding season, they move to dry, rocky locations, including canyons, from southwestern Canada south to Costa Rica to build cup nests in a crevice or cavity, usually among rocks.
The rock wren (Salpinctes obsoletus) is a small songbird of the wren family native to western North America, Mexico and Central America. It is the only species in the genus Salpinctes.
