The Wrentit is a year round resident along the west coast of the United State and Mexico from Baja up to Washington state as well along the western side of the Sierras. I really like their ping pong ball song and both sexes sing with the male singing faster than the female..

I haven’t seen a Wrentit in many years since moving from Santa Cruz, CA to Reno, NV so it was one of my target species on my trip to South Beach Newport, OR. The first day I heard a Wrentit on my run but a couple of days later I was able to capture a pair at Carl Washburne SP. They were very cooperative and I got fantastic photos with a great bokeh. It was early in the morning and along the coast you will usually have foggy conditions and that day was no exception. I reduced the shutter speed to 1/800s, opened the aperture full open resulting in an f/5.6 with the 1.4 teleconverter, and that required pushing my upper limit ISO2000.

Wrentit (Chamaea fasciata) - Carl Washburne SP, LAN (OR)
EQ: Nikon D850, Nikkor 500mm f/4.0, with 1.4 TC, Taken: 4-29-2025 at 7:31
Settings: 700mm (35mm eqv), 1/800s, f/5.6, ISO2000, +1 EV, Conditions: foggy

The common Wrentit name reflects the uncertainty of its genus and resembles both tits and wrens; however, it’s not related to either and it may belonging to the parrotbills of South Asia. Wrentits mate for life and form bonds only a few months after hatching. Wrentit populations are experiencing a decline although still of Least Concern Conservation status. The species has seen a roughly 0.5% annual decline in some regions between 1966 and 2019, resulting in a cumulative decrease of approximately 34% due to habitat loss and fragmentation of chaparral, oak woodlands, and bushland on the western coast of North America.

Wrentit

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