Welcome back to a shot of wildlife. In this video I'm going to tell you almost everything you need to know about the ren. Although you've probably heard of the ren, you might be surprised to hear that they are in fact the most common breeding bird in the UK. With a wingspan of 13 to 17cm and weighing just over 9g, they're also one of the smallest. They're a model brown over most of their bodies with a lighter grey bib. They have a short, often upright tail, a fin-pointed beak and a cream stripe behind each eye. Rens are mostly insectivorous, feeding on small spiders and other invertebrates, but they'll also eat seeds and berries. And although I haven't seen it myself, several sources suggest it will sometimes even eat tabpoles. They spend a lot of their time close to the ground searching for food and are quite adaptable to different habitats. They're found in woodlands, gardens, parks, heaths, rebeds and a long stone walls and hedgerows. Rens start nesting around April when males claim territories and then construct several dome-shaped nests of twigs and moss. These are sometimes in dense hedges, but often inside hollows, in-sheds and nesting boxes. They then show off to passing females with the loud and toonful song, which I'll share towards the end of this video accompanied with a dance. If the female is impressed, she'll pick one of the male's nests, line it with feathers and then begin to lay her eggs. She'll usually lay between five and seven eggs, although they have been known to have as little as one egg or as many as eleven. These are white with various amounts of red speckles and measure between 16 and 17 millimeters long. The female incubates these alone for 13 to 18 days and once the chicks hatch, both parents share the feeding duties. The chicks fled after 15 to 20 days when they look almost identical to their parents. It takes around two weeks after leaf-legs until they are fully independent, but they will not breed themselves until they are one year old. Adopt Rens will often nest two to three times per year and interestingly, males can have more than one mate at any time. One male was recorded having four females on different nests within his territory at the same time. The females may pair up with the same male for one breeding season, but will often pick a new mate every year. So far in this video, I've been referring to these birds as Rens, but outside of Europe, they are more commonly known as Eurasian Rens and they are quite unique. They are the only member of the Ren family outside of the Americas and are found all across Europe in some parts of northern Africa and Asia as far east as Japan. In the Americas, there are more than 80 different species of Ren. Eurasian Rens are resident across most of their range, but they do migrate away from their northern most breeding grounds for the winter. In the UK, they are currently around seven and a half million pairs of Rens and they have an average life expectancy of two years. The oldest known wild bird survived for seven years, three months and six days. Here is an example of a Rens song. And there we go. If you enjoyed this video, you learned something new, then check out this one, the things you need to know about the Blackbird. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time. I'll leave it. I know you have a thanks train.