When it’s hot outside, adult birds can “thermoregulate” their body temperature somewhat by panting. This video shows a nesting House Wren panting while incubating eggs inside a nestbox. The temperature outside the Gilberton-style nestbox was 82 degrees F at the time this video was taken with an infrared nestcam. The audio was recorded separately by Cher Layton of The Bluebird Nut.
MORE INFORMATION:
- Beat the Heat
- House Wren Biology
- Deterring House Wrens
- Nest and Egg ID
- House wren nest, eggs and young photos (Sialis.org)
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…with their constant going and coming with flitting upcocked tails, their innumerable visits to the nest with food to satisfy their clamoring young, their chattering vibrant songs, and their saucy scoldings when I ventured too near…
– Alfred Otto Gross, Life Histories of Familiar North American Birds
