Carolina wrens (Thryothorus ludovicianus Latham) have very engaging white eyebrows, attractive tweedy breasts, and tiny, ineffective brains.
When I lived in North Carolina, I had a bird feeder outside my back window. One day I moved it because the damn squirrels were plundering it. The other birds figured out that the feeder had moved right away.
The next day, however, I awoke to the sound of a very angry little bird. I looked out the window and saw that a Carolina wren was determined to use the feeder in its old location, in spite of the fact that said feeder was no longer there. The wren would...
- fly to the spot in space where the feeder had been,
- "land,"
- drop like a rock,
- catch itself before it cratered,
- fly to a perch and natter and complain, then
- repeat from step 1.
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