Rock Wren

Salpinctes obsoletus

The Rock Wren is a wide ranging Western bird that is found west to the western Great Plains from Southern Canada into Mexico. Most birds living in California, Arizona, New Mexico and west Texas are non-migrants, but some birds in summer will travel as far north as the intermountain USA states and southern Canada to breed.

We believe this bird never drinks water, but meets all its moisture needs from the food it eats. Arid and inhospitable places to humans might mean paradise to the hardy Rock Wren. They typically build nests under rock crevices, and for reasons not fully understood, they often lay small paving stones in front of the entrance to the nest cavity.

The North American Breeding Bird Survey data shows a 47% decrease in population between 1966 and 2014. In my research, I could not find any conclusions about why the birds are in decline, but with such a large range, there seem to be enough birds around that science has not deemed them as threatened.

Scientists divide Rock Wrens into eight subspecies separated into 2 groups:

Obsoletus Group
- S. o. obsoletus breeds in Southern British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan (Canada), south to coastal California, Oklahoma and west Texas, and northern Mexico from Baja California, south to Oaxaca. Northern breeders migrate to the southern parts of their range.
- S. o. guadeloupensis lives on Guadalupe Island (Mexico).
- S. o. tenuirostris lives on San Benito Island (Mexico).
- S. o. exsul lived on San Benedicto Island, but went extinct with the 1952 eruption of the island’s volcano.
- S. o. neglectus lives in southern Mexico to central Honduras.
Guttatus Group
- S. o. guttatus lives in El Salvador.
- S. o. fasciatus lives in Nicaragua.
- S. o. costaricensis lives in Costa Rica.

I always enjoy being in the company of wrens, and Rock Wrens are no exception. Most of my encounters with these birds have been in dry brushy hillside country in eastern San Diego County, but I’ve also met them in the Sierra-Nevada Mountains, in the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico, on talus slopes inside the Snake River Canyon in Idaho, and in both the Davis Mountains and the brushy deserts of Big Bend in Texas.

31 Photos

Rock Wren - Salpinctes obsoletus — **Rock Wren**
*(Salpinctes obsoletus)*

**Description:**
Tubb Canyon Trail in Anza-Borrego State Park, near Culp Valley. San Diego County, California.
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**Date Taken:** 2014:02:26 10:29

**Location:**

Tubb Canyon Trail
Anza-Borrego, California
United States
2687.14 ft above sea level

**Camera Information:**
NIKON D3X, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/3200

**File Name:** D3X3229-RockWren

© 2014 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com

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Pin It — **Rock Wren**
*(Salpinctes obsoletus)*

**Description:**
Tubb Canyon Trail in Anza-Borrego State Park, near Culp Valley. San Diego County, California.
Read More

**Date Taken:** 2014:02:26 10:29

**Location:**

Tubb Canyon Trail
Anza-Borrego, California
United States
2687.14 ft above sea level

**Camera Information:**
NIKON D3X, 800 mm, f/8.0, 1/3200

**File Name:** D3X3229-RockWren

© 2014 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com

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