Birds of the Upper Cumberland Region: Species Accounts

Bewick's Wren (Thryomanes bewickii)

Abundance: currently Rare; formerly Fairly Common through the mid-1960s; decreased rapidly to Uncommon by the late 1970s; reached the point of being Rare and near extirpation by the early 1990s; records in 20 couinties (Map of UCR Distribution); data from the Regional bird-monitoring efforts are few but point to a strongly negative trend in the population formerly breeding in or permanent residents in the Region (see also Regional Bird-Monitoring Plan).

Status: Migrant; formerly Permanent Resident (a status not applicable by the early 1990s at the latest); records extant from 20 Regional counties, 6 in Kentucky and 14 in Tennessee, but this wren was undoubtedly resident in all Regional counties during the first half of the Twentieth Century.

Regional High Count and SBC/SBB High Count: 15 (23–24 April 1965; Putnam County, Tennessee [SBC]; m. ob.); CBC/CBB High Count: 8 (27–28 December 1965; Putnam County, Tennessee [Cookeville CBC]; m. ob.). Note: these totals were achieved during two-day counts.

Information on Most Recent Records for Each Regional County: 

Kentucky:

25 December 1936 (1) Summer Shade CBC, Metcalfe County (Robert L. Baldock).

9–10 June 1938 (present) Monticello, Wayne County (W. M. Perrygo; Wetmore 1940).

3 May 1946 (present) Russell County (Gordon Wilson; Wilson 1946).

22 December 1965 (1) Burkesville CBC, Cumberland County (Charles S. Guthrie).

23 April 1995 (1) Science Hill, Pulaski County (Roseanna M. Denton unpubl. data).

13 April 1998 (1) Barren County (David L. Roemer unpubl. data).

Tennessee:

1895 ("local") Fentress County (Samuel N. Rhoads; Rhoads 1895).

15 June 1940 (nest with 5 young) Fall Creek Falls State Park, Van Buren County (Albert F. Ganier, Alfred Clebsch; Ganier and Clebsch 1940).

12  May 1951 (1) Overton County (Memphis TOS [observers unknown]; Anonymous 1951).

February 1970 (1–2) Lillydale, Clay County (Roy T. Hinds; Parmer 1970a).

4 June 1977 (1) Crossville, Cumberland County (M. Pat Stallings, Daniel R. Jacobson; Jacobson 1977; see also Tanner 1988).

27 May 1978 (1—singing) Pickett County (Albert F. Ganier; Nicholson 1982a).

Summer 1978 (present) DeKalb County (Herbert E. Shadowen; Shadowen 1978).

25 June 1980 (1) Smith County (C. P. Nicholson; Stedman 1986c).

7 May–5 June 1991 (1—singing male) Burgess Falls Rd. (Rt. 135) 5-6 km west of Baker's Crossroads, White County (Stephen J. Stedman, Barbara H. Stedman).

29 May 1994 (1—singing male) Galen Cemetery [Union Hill BBS, Stop 50], Macon County (Stephen J. Stedman), a Breeding Bird Survey record.

29 September 1995 (1) City Lake, Putnam County (Barbara H. Stedman); 22 September 1990 (1) School Board Pond (southeast corner of intersection of Rts. 70N and 111), Putnam County (Stephen J. Stedman).

24 September 2006 (1) Rt. 56 just north of Putnam County line, Jackson County (Daniel L. Combs, Kenneth L. Morgan; Casteel 2007a).

5 October 2008 (1) Mason Grissom Rd., Warren County (Susan N. McWhirter); next most recent record: 19 October 1975 (1) Warren County (M. Pat Stallings; Williams 1976a).

Breeding: Confirmed (Historical) records from 1970s in Pickett County (Nicholson 1982a) and from 1940 in Van Buren County (Ganier and Clebsch 1940); no confirmed records since early 1980s.

Habitat: Formerly, junky, unkempt yards with outbuildings; possibly uses slash piles following clear-cutting (and other silva-cultural) operations, but no evidence of this use available for the Region. As a migrant, most likely to be found in weedy, brushy, moist sites.

YardWatch Results 2003 and 2004: No registrations.

Remarks: Causes of this wren's precipitous population decrease—initiated no later than the mid-1960s (Tanner 1988), considered well underway by the early 1970s, and believed to have approached the point of near extirpation by the early 1990s—in the Region are unknown; they were hypothesized to involve competition from the invading House Wren, cold winter weather, and cleaning of junky yards, but none of these may actually have been the major causative factor in the species' extirpation from the Region—and much of the eastern U.S. (Nicholson 1997).

    Christmas Bird Count (CBC) data are especially revealing about the demise of this wren's Regional population (LINK to Regional CBC data).  In the first season (1936–1937) during which CBCs were conducted in the Region, a Bewick's Wren was registered on the first (and only) Summer Shade (Metcalfe County, Kentucky) CBC; single Bewick's Wrens were also reported from the nearby Glasgow (Barren County, Kentucky) CBC during the late 1930s and early 1940s.  A lull in the conducting of CBCs in the Region from the early 1940s until the mid-1950s prevents our knowing what was going on with the wren population during winter in that period.  Then in the mid-1950s CBCs resumed being conducted, with Bewick's Wrens' being recorded on CBCs in Glasgow through the early 1960s; in Burkesville, Cumberland County, Kentucky, during the mid-1960s; and in Cookeville, Putnam County, Tennessee, through the very early 1970s.  CBCs that continued to be conducted in Glasgow and Cookeville, as well as CBCs initiated in Pickett County, Tennessee, during the late 1970s and in Warren County, Tennessee, during the early 1980s witnessed no registrations of this species, indicating its widespread absence during winter in the Region by that time.

    Spring Bird Count (SBC) data offer a somewhat less revealing glimpse of the status of the Regional Bewick's Wren population than do the CBC data, but they are nonetheless worth exploring (LINK to Regional SBC data).  While SBCs conducted as part of TOS meetings at Standing Stone State Park in Overton County, TN, during the early 1950s indicate minimal presence of this species in that county at that time, SBCs conducted in Putnam County, TN, and in Cumberland County, TN, during the 1960s reflect the presence of a moderate population of this wren; SBCs conducted in the former county during the 1970s appear to show its gradual disappearance during that decade.  No SBCs were conducted anywhere within the Region from 1979 to 1991, preventing our knowing just when the species dipped below the population threshold required for it to be registered on SBCs, but this threshold, if not reached during the 1970s, was probably reached sometime during the 1980s; the species' absence on all Regional SBCs conducted during the 1990s and 2000s clearly indicates its near or complete extirpation from the Upper Cumberland during the early breeding season by that time.

    The species' historical breeding in Bledsoe County is referenced by Nicholson (1997), who does not indicate the source of this information.

    Currently, Bewick's Wrens are most likely to be encountered in the Region as migrants during late September and early October (see also Habitat above).

    The absence of any records of this wren from seven Regional counties stems at least in part from an attitude of complacence about the species while it was common, an attitude commonly held about many common species today.  In view of the likelihood of complacence about the status of common species that might become rare in the future, we would do well to remember what might be called the "Rosalie Edge Doctrine"—"the time to save a species is while it is still common"—and document the status of all species, including common ones, as often as possible.

Check-lists of Birds for the Counties of the UCR

Check-lists of the birds of each county of the Upper Cumberland Region may be viewed by clicking on the links below. For each county, there are two check-lists: one list that shows the species that have been observed and where possible documented in the county within the larger list for the entire Region; and one list that includes only the species observed in the county with annotations for the date and observers for at least one sighting (the ultimate goal of the latter list will be to include annotations for the very first known Regional observation of each species in that county; this goal is probably one that will take many years to complete, if completion is even a possibility). To see if the species discussed in this species account has been observed in a county, click below or click on the link for the Map of UCR Distribution near the top of the page.

Check-lists of Birds for Some Public Access Birding Sites of the UCR

Check-lists of the birds of some public access birding sites within the Upper Cumberland Region may be viewed via the links below. To see if the species dealt with in this species account has been observed within any of these sites, click on the appropriate link below. See the pages for each county within the Gazetteer for links to additional smaller public access birding sites with check-lists in progress.

Literature Cited