Birdbrain

If you're chewing your Cheerios right now, here's a highly scientific experiment you can do right in your own kitchen.

Start by putting a dime on the table or counter or wherever you put your cereal bowl. Look at the dime. It's small.

Now look at your cereal bowl. Imagine three of those bowls filled to the brim with your favorite cereal.

A ball with the same diameter as the dime would be about the size of an average wren's brain.

The three bowls of cereal would be about the size of your brain -- three pounds' worth, in fact.

Consider this question carefully: Have you ever been called a birdbrain?

If you have, you probably took it as an insult. A brain as big as three bowls of cereal ought to be superior to a brain no wider than a dime, right?

The more I watch the wrens in our backyard, however, the more I wonder if being called a birdbrain shouldn't be taken as a compliment. A big one.

A couple of years ago I shared with you the saga of the wren family in the wreath on our family room door. That's the door we use to go into and out of our house. The wrens built their unique nest despite our comings and goings. We were occasional pests to the wrens, who were focused on hatching and feeding their family.

This is the same back-door wreath that has been, in prior years, home to cardinals and purple finches. This wreath has what a real estate broker would call the three most important pluses of any good property: location, location, location.

This year, however, the wrens have chosen a new building site. We assume they carefully watched for human activity near the new location and, seeing little, began hauling in construction materials.

Wren nests are unique because they have roofs. Instead of the bowl architectural plan common to most birds, a wren's nest is more of a barrel style with the opening in the side.

On the opposite side of the family room across from the door with the wreath is a set of patio doors that let in bountiful morning sunlight but serve no other purpose. We never go in and out those doors. On either side of the patio doors are two hanging pots, one above the other. The top pots are a bit higher than my eye level, so it's 6 feet or so off the ground. The lower pots are at about my waist.

The wrens have chosen the top pot on the right side of the door -- the side nearest the kitchen window over the counter where we eat breakfast. As a result, we have a close-up view of the wrens as they build a home.

The pot they chose is about 8 inches deep. This has meant carrying in filler for the bottom to raise the level of the nest. Then the wrens began fashioning the rounded nest with its roof and opening about 3 inches below the rim of the pot. The pot is under a wide eave that protects the pots from rain.

As I see it, the birds made a smart real estate decision.

They did it with a brain no bigger than that dime next to your cereal bowl.

You can call me a birdbrain anytime you want.

jsullivan@semissourian.com<I>