SPECIES: Troglodytes aedon

DESCRIPTION: Dusky brown, 4 1/2-5, inches long with short tail often cocked over back.

VOICE: Gurgling, bubbling song that rises, then falls. Scolds with a zzzzzssszzzz sound.

HABITAT: Residential areas, city parks, farmland and woodland edges. Lure them with a wren house, 4-by-4-by-6 inches with a 1 1/2-inch entrance hole, placed 6-10 feet off ground. Also like brush and piles and berry tangles.

RANGE: Common throughout U.S., especially East Coast.

FOOD: Insects, including caterpillars, grasshoppers and spiders.

NEST: 5-8 white eggs, thickly speckled with brown, in a cup shape lined with feathers and soft material in a concoction of sticks and grass.