Marsh Wren

Status Rare vagrant, very rare in summer. Breeds. The first recorded in Nova Scotia was collected by Harold F. Tufts near Port Joli, Queens County, on 15 November 1949. It was one of three, all of which he described as being active and noisy among a stand of tall reeds (Phragmites communis). The next was taken near Wallace, Cumberland County, by Lloyd Duncanson on 3 November 1953, and another was collected by Charles R.K. Allen, at East Lawrencetown, Halifax County, on 15 February 1958. Since 1958, the Marsh Wren has been a "regular rarity," with vagrants appearing mostly on Seal Island but also consistently in the area from Cole Harbour to Chezzetcook in Halifax County. Since 1979 they have begun to nest in small numbers close to the New Brunswick border. Away from that area there are only two spring records: Brier Island on 17 May 1971 and Seal Island on 21 May 1982. Fall occurrences--35 records of about 64 birds--have been mainly in September (earliest 18 September) and October, with a few in November and December. They have appeared on Halifax East Christmas Bird Counts in 1968, 1974, 1979 and 1982, and one lingered on Cape Sable until 10 January 1967.

Description Length: 12-14 cm. Adults: Black cap and a prominent white line over the eye; back black with narrow white stripes; remainder of upperparts rufous; wings and tail grayish brown banded with dark gray; flanks buffy gray; underparts white.

Breeding Nest: A large egg-shaped structure with a hole on one side, woven of reeds, lined with finer material and fastened to upright cattails. Although no nests have been discovered to date in Nova Scotia, at least two singing males were found in the Amherst Point Bird Sanctuary during July and August 1979, and the next year two groups of four or five fledged young each were found there being tended by adults on 23 August (C. Desplanque). Eggs: 5-7; dull brown, with darker brown spots.

Range Breeds from central British Columbia, northern Alberta, southern Ontario and southeastern New Brunswick, south to the southern United States. Winters in the United States and Mexico.

Remarks It was formerly known as the "Long-billed Marsh Wren." As its name suggests, it frequents marshy places where tall aquatic vegetation predominates. To establish racial identity, three birds collected between 1949 and 1958 were sent to the Carnegie Museum, where they were examined by Kenneth C. Parkes. The result of his examination is somewhat surprising. He found that the Port Joli bird (1949) belongs to the nominate race Cistothorus palustris palustris, that normally inhabits the Atlantic coastal strip from New York State to Virginia, which suggests that it was probably carried to Nova Scotia by strong southerly gales. The Wallace specimen (1953) is closest to C. p. palustris but shows evidence of intergradation with Cistothorus palustris waynei. According to Parkes, this indicates that the bird was a stray from the population along the Virginia coast, where these races meet. The East Lawrencetown bird (1957), on the other hand, is definitely of the race Cistothorus palustris dissaeiptus, the form that breeds in New Brunswick and New England. In the field, observers might be able to distinguish the white-breasted coastal birds (C. p. palustris) from the buffy-breasted inland birds (C. p. dissaeiptus), but the possibility of other races in the province complicates matters.