Wrens have a dark side

Within the past week, I have also begun to make occasional posts under this blog's name at the Round Table Conferences, which is maintained by the Purple Martin Society. Yesterday, I posted about our wren house and how a couple had started building a nest in it. It wasn't long before Terry Suchma, who invited me to post on the RTC, e-mailed and sent me some links to discussions they've had on the house wren.

Unbeknownest to me, the cute little species has a dark side.

From what I read via the RTC posts and a little on the Internet, house wrens destroy the eggs of other birds. Here are some links:

"The Great Wren Debate Revisited," "House Wren" (Birds of Forest, Yard, and Thicket), another "House Wren" (Cornell University), and "Discouraging House Wrens."

Hmm, for now I'm going to keep researching and keep this one nest box up. But that's it.

UPDATE–March 11, 2008–This is a Bewick's wren, not a house wren. The white stripe across its eyes is the difference.