Rock Wren Salpinctes obsoletus Scientific name definitions

"Salpinctes obsoletus is a very plain name for a bundle of fire known as the rock wren. It is heard, up on the bluffs, up in the rocks, but it is seen only by those who climb the bluffs regularly, and then it is seen only irregularly" — J. Janovy (1 Janovy, J., Jr. (1978). Keith County Journal. St. Martin's Press, New York, NY, USA. Close : 45).

A pale wren of arid, western North America, the Rock Wren is strongly associated with exposed rock habitats: canyons, cliffs, boulder fields, rocky hillsides, and dry rocky washes. It also occurs in non-rocky habitats, as long as such areas are “rich in crevices, interstices, passageways, recesses, and nooks and crannies of diverse shapes and sizes” (2 Ryser, R. A., Jr. (1985). Birds of the Great Basin: A Natural History. University of Nevada Press, Reno, NV, USA. Close : 410). One curious aspect of its biology is that adults often build a walkway of small, flat stones or pebbles that leads to the nest cavity, and extends inside the cavity. Rocks may be stacked at the cavity entrance and help keep the nest cup dry, and by reducing the size of the cavity opening, rocks likely provide protection from predators (3 Warning, N., and L. Benedict (2014). Paving the way: multifunctional nest architecture of the Rock Wren. Auk 132(1): 288–299. Close ).

Far more easily heard than seen, Rock Wren songs are unmistakable, though their beauty lies in the ears of the listener. According to Florence M. Bailey (4 Bailey, F. M. (1904a). Handbook of Birds of the Western United States including the Great Plains, Great Basin, Pacific Slope, and Lower Rio Grande Valley. 2nd edition. Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston, MA, USA. Close : 444), its song “. . . at first hearing seems the drollest, most unbird-like of machine-made tinklings,” but William L. Dawson (5 Dawson, W. L. (1923). The Birds of California: A Complete, Scientific and Popular Account of the 580 Species and Subspecies of Birds Found in the State. Volume 2. South Moulton, San Diego, CA, USA. Close : 685) considered this wren's songs to be “the sprightliest, most musical, and resonant to be heard in the entire West.” Even to Bailey, however, this wren redeems itself, as the song “. . . comes to be greeted as the voice of a friend on the desert, and its quality to seem in harmony with the hard, gritty granites among which he lives” (4 Bailey, F. M. (1904a). Handbook of Birds of the Western United States including the Great Plains, Great Basin, Pacific Slope, and Lower Rio Grande Valley. 2nd edition. Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston, MA, USA. Close : 444). Males are truly remarkable singers and can have repertoires of more than 100 song types, many of which seem to be shared across the species' range (6 Kroodsma, D. E. (1975). Song patterning in the Rock Wren. Condor 77(3): 294–303. Close , 7 Benedict, L., and N. Warning (2017). Rock wrens preferentially use song types that improve long distance signal transmission during natural singing bouts. Journal of Avian Biology 48(9): 1254–1262. Close ).

Most information about Rock Wren biology is anecdotal as the species has received little study. However, published information is increasing with recent studies of nesting behavior (3 Warning, N., and L. Benedict (2014). Paving the way: multifunctional nest architecture of the Rock Wren. Auk 132(1): 288–299. Close , 8 Warning, N., D. Leatherman, N. Covy, and L. Benedict (2014). Male Rock and Canyon Wrens evince their fitness as single parents. Colorado Birds 48: 276–280. Close , 9 Meyer, A., N. Warning, and L. Benedict (2015). Direct removal of fecal sacs by Rock Wrens. Western Birds 46: 267–270. Close , 10 Warning, N., and L. Benedict (2016). Facultative nest modification by Rock Wrens (Salpinctes obsoletus). Avian Biology Research 9: 58–65. Close ), habitat use (11 Warning, N., and L. Benedict (2015). Overlapping home ranges and microhabitat partitioning among Canyon Wrens (Catherpes mexicanus) and Rock Wrens (Salpinctes obsoletus). Wilson Journal of Ornithology 127:395–401. Close ), and singing behavior (7 Benedict, L., and N. Warning (2017). Rock wrens preferentially use song types that improve long distance signal transmission during natural singing bouts. Journal of Avian Biology 48(9): 1254–1262. Close , 12 Benedict, L., and N. A. Najar (2019). Are commonly used metrics of bird song complexity concordant? Auk: Ornithological Advances 136(1): uky008. Close ) in Colorado. Other focused work includes Merola's (13 Merola, M. (1995). Observations on the nesting and breeding behavior of the Rock Wren. Condor 97: 585–587. Close ) study of 6 color-marked nesting pairs in New Mexico; observations by Wolf et al. (14 Wolf, L., R. M. Lejnieks, C. R. Brown, and J. Yarchin (1985). Temperature fluctuations and nesting behavior of Rock Wrens in a high-altitude environment. Wilson Bulletin 97: 385–387. Close ) at a nest in California; and a study of song in Oregon by Kroodsma (6 Kroodsma, D. E. (1975). Song patterning in the Rock Wren. Condor 77(3): 294–303. Close ).