{"id":2329,"date":"2013-07-10T11:20:33","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T11:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/?p=2329"},"modified":"2013-07-10T18:38:37","modified_gmt":"2013-07-10T18:38:37","slug":"little-bird-big-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/?p=2329","title":{"rendered":"Little bird, big name"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other afternoon I was having a rare afternoon pint in the shady garden of The Volunteer Tavern<\/a> in St Judes when mine host Peter Gibbs asked me a question along the lines of: “What are these small brown birds I keep seeing in the garden?”<\/p>\n

I told him that I’d frequently seen (and heard; as the RSPB remarks, “For such a small bird it has a remarkably loud voice.” Ed.<\/em>) wrens<\/a> in the garden.<\/p>\n

\"image
The Eurasian Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The wren is Britain’s smallest bird, measuring 9.5-10 cm, and used to feature on the back of Britain’s smallest coin – the pre-decimal farthing<\/a>, which ceased to be legal tender after 31st December 1960.<\/p>\n

\"image
George VI farthing. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite its small size, the wren has a big binomial name: Troglodytes troglodytes.<\/p>\n

The wren is found across the UK in a wide range of habitats – woodland, farmland, heathland, moorland and islands and is a regular visitor to gardens, including pub gardens in central Bristol. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

In European folklore, the wren is named the King of the Birds. According to a fable attributed to Aesop<\/a> by Plutarch<\/a>, when the eagle and the wren strove to fly the highest (presumably for the title of King of the Birds. Ed.<\/em>), the wren initially rested on the eagle’s back and then when the eagle tired, the wren took off from his back, soared above him and so won the accolade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other afternoon I was having a rare afternoon pint in the shady garden of The Volunteer Tavern in St Judes when mine host Peter Gibbs asked me a question along the lines of: “What are these small brown birds I keep seeing in the garden?” I told him that I’d frequently seen (and heard; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,3],"tags":[18,40,22],"class_list":["post-2329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bristol","category-translation-and-language-related-matters","tag-beer","tag-bristol","tag-language"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2329"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2335,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2329\/revisions\/2335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}