26th December: Wren Day

Today is Wren Day. Here are ten facts about wrens and Wren Day.

1. Why Wren Day? Wrens are connected with St Stephen. whose feast day is today. According to legend, a singing wren gave away Stephen's hiding place to his enemies and the activities of Wren Day are exacting revenge on the bird.
2. In olden times, boys would go out on Christmas Day, kill a wren and parade the tiny corpse around town, begging for money to bury it. They'd use the money to pay for a "Wren Ball" in January. It was also a day of revelry and fighting. Today, no wrens are harmed in the festivities - the bird paraded around is fake. Girls and adults join the boys; people dress up and play jokes on each other; and the money goes to charity.
3. It was considered bad luck to kill a wren or disturb its nest on any other day. Doing so could result in broken bones, your house getting struck by Lightning, or an injury to your cattle.
4. There are about 80 species of wren. The species vary considerably in terms of appearance, habitat and behaviour. They range in size from the white-bellied wren, which measures under 10 cm (3.9 in) and weighs 9g (0.32 oz), to the giant wren, which measures about 22 cm (8.7 in) and weighs in at almost 50g (1.8 oz).
5. Only one true species of wren is found outside the Americas - the Eurasian Wren. Wrens are found in a range of habitats including rainforests and dry, sparsely wooded areas.
6. Some species are shy and secretive, others perch in plain sight and sing. Some species are monogamous and others polygamous but all build dome shaped nests.
7. What they eat varies according to species, too, but generally they eat insects. Some eat seeds and berries as well, larger species may prey on small Frogs or lizards. Eurasian wrens will wade into shallow water to catch tadpoles and small fish. Still other species will eat Snails or birds' eggs.
8. In Old High German, the word for wren is kuningilin "kinglet"; in modern German, the word is Zaunkönig, king of the fence (or hedge). In Dutch, the name is winterkoninkje (little winter king). There are two possible reasons for this. One because some wrens have Yellow plumage on their heads. Secondly, because of a fable about the election of the king of the birds. The birds held a contest to see which of them could fly highest, and that bird would be proclaimed king. Naturally, it was the eagle which could fly highest under its own steam, but a wren, either by accident or design, was caught in the eagle's feathers and when the eagle was soaring above everyone else, the wren took off from the eagle's back and flew that little bit higher.
9. A group of wrens is called a herd.
10. The Carolina wren is the state bird of South Carolina and is depicted on the state quarter. A wren also once appeared on a British coin, the farthing, from 1937 to 1960 when farthings ceased to be legal tender.