This afternoon, the tiniest bird I have ever seen got into my house. It probably had a bit of help from one of the cats, but it did not seem injured. This bird was barely 2" long in the body, and about a 1" long very fine and straight beak. He was a lovely pecan/chestnut brown, with speckles on his lower sides. Its body was roundish, and the tail was small. I did get to hold him/her briefly, and stroke its feathers. Then it flew away. I hope he can find a warm roost for tonight, and keep warm. It is to be very very cold tonight, and down in the teens. I would guess from its beak that it drinks nectar and eats insects. We do not have many insects here in November, or flowers! I think it was smaller than a hummingbird! I am looking through my North American Fieldguides for birds, but nothing yet. Though the mugshots in those books are not flattering, and sometimes do not even look like the bird in question.
Ok. I looked them up. It might have been one of the wrens, but it was lacking the dark bars in the feathers. It was not one of my Bewick's wrens, as they have the distinctive white eyebars. I don't think it was a kinglet. I did find another small brown bird once, but it was already dead. It had an orange patch on top, I never did ID that one. The kinglets are gray and charcoal. I have seen several yellow breasted chats here in my area, and they do NOT look like the pictures in the field guide books.
I don't know if you get these little birds where you are but could it have been a juvenile Goldcrest or Firecrest?
I thought of a Wren too. But not knowing where you are, it could be a little birdie I am not familiar with. Hope the little one is OK!
I guess I did not notice I had not put in my location. Goldcrests and Firecrests are not listed in my field guide for North America, so likely we do not get them here. It might have been a juvenile winter wren? Though it did not have the barring shown in the field guide. I need to make some suet for my winter birdies here. I am sure they will all love it.
It does seem from what others are saying that it is some type of wren. I think you get House Wrens where you are so maybe one of those. :-? The only other suggestion I can come up with is a Chickadee. I hope you can find out what your little bird was and, if you do, I'd love to know what you find out.
I can guarantee that it was NOT a chickadee. I have tons of chickadees around here, and this is not it. It may have been a wren, but it is not a Bewick's wren. I have lots of Bewicks wrens here also. This was much smaller than the Bewick's wren, and does not have the white eye stripe.
Sound like a young house wren. They can get pretty tame around here. Adult house wrens are only about 3 in. not counting the tail. Tail is fairly short and they will flip it up and down quite often. Will sure talk to you when you are too close to the nest.
Could be. It was so very tiny, and didnt seem to mind me petting it. I wish he would come to visit me [but not too close to my cats!] some more. I made suet for my wild birds this morning and put it out for them. I was trying to think of the right shade of brown when I originally posted this. Chestnut is not the right shade for this one [too red], but bing showed them in several shades of brown, and some were the right color. Mine was a lovely golden brown.
