Marsh wrens like to splay their legs, often using two different plants to balance upon.

You can hear them in the cattails, but they are very hard to see. 

That’s because they don’t sit at the top, like the song sparrows do; they much prefer to hide at mid-level, where the greenery is at its thickest. 

So, get familiar with manual focus, because autofocus will fail miserably.  

That’s because autofocus will struggle for a while and then settle on the nearest subject.  So instead of getting an in-focus marsh wren, you will get a fuzzy one.  

Song sparrows are drab-colored, too, but it’s easy to tell them apart from a marsh wren.

The marsh grass in front of it will be quite sharp, though.  

Just a little tip from a newbie who learned the hard way  🙂 

Marsh wrens have no distinctive coloring, like the redwings do.  Their muted brown colors blend in with the rush thickets.  

They really like to hide!

But get too close to a nest, and these tiny, drab-colored birds will rattle up a storm of protests!

Noisy little thing!!!

There are lots of small, drab-colored birds that hang around marshes, but there are a couple of features will distinguish the marsh wren from the others. 

Like, their rattly calls.  And their tails, which they stick almost straight up in the air. 

They are feisty birds, especially the males. 

 The males are not monogamous but will mate with two or more females.  They not only build the nest, they will build many of them. 

The nests are hard to spot. This one is in a Maryland marsh, https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/view/1212

And they are quite territorial — the males are known to peck holes in the eggs of other birds, including other marsh wrens. 

So, it’s probably wise not to get on their bad side, especially if you live in a marsh.