Species: Marsh Wren
Most recent capture date: 6/12/2022
Age: less than four months old

Notes: In a season when I take data on many juvenile Bewick’s Wrens, this young wren looked a little off to me. It was still growing in most of its feathers, making it scruffy and hard to ID, but comparing it to a Bewick’s Wren we caught at the same time (in the background of this photo) made it clear that the two birds were different. After a bit of puzzling I finally noticed the characteristic mottled back of a Marsh Wren. You have to stay alert in bird banding: you never know when “another baby wren” will be something unexpected.