Birds eating strange things!

I have been watching wrens in my porch this summer. I kept seeing them bringing in a large grub-like insect that I did not recognise.

Then the wren disappeared into a bush and flew out with an orange underwing moth. The wren grabbed the moth banging it against the gravel. She managed to take a wing off, disabling the moth and then proceeded to remove the remaining three wings. A final blow just to finish it off and she had a ready prepared high protein meal for the chicks!

I could not help but to wonder if it was worth the effort. But this was not a one off. She caught a further six moths in front of me that afternoon. All were ‘de-winged’ in a similar fashion. No wonder I didn’t recognise these large food parcels as they were being brought in.

I wrote about it & the breeding habits of the wren in my article for the Yorkshire Post. Click here to read more.