The Fair Isle wren (''Troglodytes troglodytes fridariensis'') is a small

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

bird in the wren family. It is a subspecies of the

Eurasian wren The Eurasian wren (''Troglodytes troglodytes'') or northern wren is a very small insectivorous bird, and the only member of the wren family Troglodytidae found in Eurasia and Africa (Maghreb). In Anglophone Europe, it is commonly known simply a ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

Fair Isle Fair Isle (; sco, Fair Isle; non, Friðarey; gd, Fara) is an island in Shetland, in northern Scotland. It lies about halfway between mainland Shetland and Orkney. It is known for its bird observatory and a traditional style of knitting. Th ...

, Shetland,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, an island about halfway between mainland Shetland and Orkney. It was first described by the British ornithologist Kenneth Williamson in 1951.Williamson, Kenneth. (1951). The wrens of Fair Isle. ''Ibis'' 93(4): 599-60

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Description

The Fair Isle wren is darker and larger than the mainland form of the winter wren, though not as dark as another insular subspecies, the

Shetland wren The Shetland wren (''Troglodytes troglodytes zetlandicus'') is a small passerine bird in the wren family. It is a subspecies of the Eurasian wren endemic to the Shetland archipelago of Scotland, with the exception of Fair Isle which has its ...

, ''T. t. zetlandicus''.

Distribution and habitat

This wren is

to Fair Isle, an island about halfway between mainland Shetland and Orkney. The

St Kilda wren The St Kilda wren (''Troglodytes troglodytes hirtensis'') is a small passerine bird in the wren family. It is a distinctive subspecies of the Eurasian wren endemic to the islands of the isolated St Kilda archipelago, in the Atlantic Ocean we ...

on the island of Hirta is often found nesting in crevices on the cliffs, and in association with puffin colonies, but that is not the case with the Fair Isle wren, where the low red sandstone cliffs are rather bare, with friable rock and earth slides, and small patches of tufted vegetation. The main breeding

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

of Fair Isle wrens is boulder beaches at the tip of long inlets. The boulders provide the shelter lacking on the cliffs, but even so, the windswept south-west of the island hosts few wrens. No breeding seems to occur in the crofting area, although the birds may feed here later in the year when the young are independent.

Ecology

The Fair Isle wren spends much time feeding on the foreshore among the dead seaweed cast up by the tide. Their diet includes sandhoppers and other

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can ...

s, and the

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. ...

e of

flies Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced m ...

Status

Fair Isle is a small island, in area, and the population of the wren is tiny, varying from ten to fifty pairs, breeding mainly on boulder beaches.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4051795 Troglodytes (bird) Endemic fauna of Scotland Biota of Shetland Birds described in 1951 1951 in Scotland Wren Endemic biota of the Scottish islands