Winter Wren
Troglodytes hiemalis
Live from the dock
Active 352 minutes across 36 days since September 2026. Last heard today.
Heard todayHear the call
When you'll hear it
Most often heard in the morning, 8 to 11 a.m. Quiet overnight.
Minutes active by hour, as a table
| 12 AM | 1 AM | 2 AM | 3 AM | 4 AM | 5 AM | 6 AM | 7 AM | 8 AM | 9 AM | 10 AM | 11 AM | NOON | 1 PM | 2 PM | 3 PM | 4 PM | 5 PM | 6 PM | 7 PM | 8 PM | 9 PM | 10 PM | 11 PM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minutes active | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 25 | 64 | 53 | 32 | 27 | 29 | 30 | 18 | 22 | 15 | 12 | 17 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Across the year
Present from mid-September through November. First heard this year on September 14.
Dock records
- First heard
- September 14, 2026
- Busiest day
- 37 minutes on October 27, 2026
- Earliest call
- 5:07 a.m.
- Days detected
- 36 of 183 days monitored
What our dock mics have heard
We've heard the Winter Wren on 36 of 183 days, so it's kind of in the middle for us... 352 minutes active so far, #47 of the 107 species on the list.
October has been its big month so far, 188 minutes active. We didn't hear it once in May, June, July and August. The record day is October 27, 2026 with 37 minutes active. We started listening on May 2, 2026, so there's nothing for December through April yet.
| Month | Days heard | Minutes active |
|---|---|---|
| May 2026 | 0 of 20 | 0 |
| June 2026 | 0 of 30 | 0 |
| July 2026 | 0 of 31 | 0 |
| August 2026 | 0 of 31 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 9 of 30 | 24 |
| October 2026 | 18 of 31 | 188 |
| November 2026 | 9 of 10 | 142 |
We don't see much of an early or late pattern. The top hour so far is 7 a.m. at 18% of its minutes. Earliest we've caught one is 5:07 a.m.
Lately it's really picked up, 25 of the past 30 days against 7% of days earlier on.
Heard alongside
Out of the 161 hours we've had the Winter Wren on the mics, these birds turned up in the same hours the most. We pick them by how much their hours overlap.
- Golden-crowned Kinglet: calling in 105 of those 161 hours.
- White-throated Sparrow: calling in 104 of those 161 hours.
- Northern Flicker: calling in 92 of those 161 hours.
- Yellow-rumped Warbler: calling in 84 of those 161 hours.
- Song Sparrow: calling in 53 of those 161 hours.
Common questions
What time of day do you hear a Winter Wren at Watts Bar Lake?
Most often heard in the morning, 8 to 11 a.m. Quiet overnight. These are the hours the dock microphones detect the Winter Wren most often.
What time of year is the Winter Wren at Watts Bar Lake?
Present from mid-September through November. First heard this year on September 14. That window is when the Winter Wren has been audible from the Watts Bar Lake dock.
Has the Winter Wren been heard at Watts Bar Lake?
Yes. Active 352 minutes across 36 days since September 2026. Last heard today.
About the bird
The winter wren is a very small North American bird and a member of the mainly New World wren family Troglodytidae. The species was formerly often lumped together with Eurasian wren of Eurasia and Pacific wren of western North America under the merged name of northern wren, until they were split in 2010.
From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 Read more on Wikipedia →
