Troglodytes aedon
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The northern house wren (Troglodytes aedon) is a very small passerine in the wren family Troglodytidae. It is found in southern Canada, the USA and Mexico. It occurs in most suburban areas in its range. It formerly included many subspecies resident in South America and in the Caribbean that are now considered as separate species. The name troglodytes means "hole dweller", and is a reference to the bird's tendency to disappear into crevices when hunting insects or to seek shelter.
The northern house wren was formally described in 1809 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot under the current binomial name Troglodytes aedon. The specific epithet is from the Ancient Greek aēdōn meaning "nightingale". The type locality was designated as New York City by Harry Oberholser in 1934. An earlier specific name, domestica in the combination Sylvia domestica, was introduced in 1808 by the American ornithologist Alexander Wilson. This was rarely used and in 1998 to conserve the widely used name aedon, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature suppressed the specific name domestica for the purposes of the principle of priority.
Four subspecies are recognised... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sacramento | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Philadelphia | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Baltimore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Denver | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Guadalajara | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 7 | Calgary | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 8 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Toluca | 🇲🇽 México |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a House Wren sighting in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, based on 208 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 100th most-seen of the 173 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June–July and October–November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a House Wren in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, against under 5% in August–September and December–May, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most House Wren sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
27th of 36
Of the 36 parks where we can rate House Wren sightings, Great Smoky Mountains National Park ranks 27th at under 5%. The best odds are in Point Pelee National Park (Canada, about 60%), Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (United States, about 30%) and Rocky Mountain National Park (United States, about 30%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the House Wren is recorded against all the birds logged in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (208 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
