What Do Wrens Eat In The UK?

Often named the most common garden bird in the UK, the wren is also one of the smallest. Because of their popularity, it’s logical that their diets would include foods that are available everywhere, so what do wrens eat?

Join us as we learn about the typical diet of these active but often elusive little songbirds.

Insects and invertebrates are the wren’s main diet, with beetles, caterpillars, spiders and larvae being the most popular. Berries and seeds are also eaten, especially in winter. Wrens spend most of their time foraging in the bushes, looking for small bugs and fruit drop among the leaves.

Especially in winter, wrens may be more prone to hopping on the ground under bird tables and feeders, foraging for seeds, suet, and peanuts on the floor. Mealworms, bread crumbs, and even grated cheese are some of the favorite foods humans offer.

Wrens are active foragers, and their tiny weight means they constantly need to make sure they consume more food than they burn for energy. High-calorie foods like black oil sunflower seeds are a popular winter choice because they provide an extra energy repair.

To learn about the different feeding habits of wrens throughout the year, as well as the early diet of newly hatched wrens, please continue to read!

Wrens mainly eat insects and invertebrates

diet

What is the best bird food for wrens?

Unlike many common garden birds, wrens are not constantly tempted by store-bought bird food or other foods offered at bird feeders. Of all the commercially available bird foods, wrens are most likely to eat dried mealworms. They may also pick suet and peanuts, but since they are primarily insectivores, they will be content to forage from their natural environment.

What seeds do wrens eat?

Although seeds are not always a preferred food for wrens, they will use seeds during the winter if no other food is available. Black oil sunflower seeds and peanut hearts provide a good source of energy for wrens.

What insects do wrens eat?

Insects make up the bulk of a wren’s natural diet—about 80 percent—and this includes beetles and flies. The larvae of flying insects such as moths and crane flies are also popular, and caterpillars and spiders are another great source of nutrition for foraging wrens.

What fruit do wrens eat?

Wrens will occasionally eat small berries that fall to the ground, which they find while foraging for insects. Fruit and seeds make up about 20 percent of a wren’s natural diet, and insects make up the other 80 percent.

Eurasian Wren Foraging

foraging behavior

How often do wrens eat?

Wrens feed throughout the day, but are likely to be most active after dawn and early evening.

Do wrens go to feeders?

Wrens are ground feeders and will often forage at garden edges, especially where there are hedges and dense foliage. They are most likely to eat food provided by platform feeders or seeds and nuts scattered on the ground.

What time of day do wrens feed?

The times of day when wrens are most likely to be spotted are early morning and just before dusk. Wrens do spend a lot of time each day hopping around bushes, bushes, and bushes looking for insects and larvae, so no matter what time of day they will eat whatever they come across.

How do wrens find food?

Wrens forage for insects and spiders on the ground, but will also eat fallen berries. They spend most of their time out of sight, in hedges and bushes, or sifting through piles of leaves on the floor of parks, gardens or woodlands.

Wren foraging for insects in the woods

What do wrens eat in winter?

In the winter, wrens are more likely to go to garden feeders with plenty of food, foraging below for any debris or spilled seeds. Popular winter options are not limited to their usual natural foods, with wrens observed to have a particular preference for grated cheese, a fermented dairy product safe for birds to consume.

What do wrens eat in summer?

Insects and larvae are ubiquitous during the summer and make up the wren’s main food at this time of year. Overripe and dropped berries can also be foraged from the ground under fruit bushes.

What do baby wrens eat?

Small terrestrial insects are key elements of the young wren’s early diet, and insects including moth larvae, caterpillars, and crane fly larvae are the most common choices for parents to feed their young. Young wrens can be fed snail shells as a kind of grit to aid digestion.

Closeup of a wren feeding chick grubs

Feeding and Attracting Wrens

Can wrens be fed?

Wrens are resourceful little birds that generally can survive without supplemental food provided by humans. That said, wrens may take advantage of food scattered around bird feeders, lawns, and back garden patios during the cooler months of the year. Suitable foods, including dried mealworms, peanuts, suet, and sunflower seeds, are best left in your garden in the hopes of wrens visiting.

What can I feed my wren?

Wrens are insectivores, and their diet consists mainly of beetles, spiders, and caterpillars. They may be attracted to your garden by dry mealworms and occasionally eat peanuts and suet from the ground around garden feeders.

What not to feed wrens?

Common sense dictates to avoid feeding wrens the main food. Chocolate, avocado, onion, garlic, caffeine and salt should never be fed to this species — or any other wild bird.

A wren perched on a garden root

What do wrens drink?

Thirsty wrens need fresh water to drink from, and a bird bath, pond, or water feature will suffice for a wren’s hydration needs.

How do you attract wrens?

Overgrown, leafy hedges will provide ideal habitat for wrens. These garden birds spend most of their lives feeding on small insects on the ground, and piles of foliage around the back garden will provide a perfect foraging environment.

Garden wrens also eat dried mealworms, suet, crushed peanuts, and black oil sunflower seeds, especially in winter. Wrens tend to forage in more secluded areas of shrubs around the edges of garden boundaries, so one suggestion might be to sprinkle these areas with food to increase the chances of attracting a visit from nearby wrens.

Do you have a wren around?

Wrens play a key role in the natural control of insects and spiders, feeding on many smaller insects that can damage crops or other garden plants. For this reason, many consider these tiny songbirds a real asset to any piece of land.

Wren perched on a mossy log