Troglodytes troglodytes ussuriensis

This bird has since been merged with Troglodytes troglodytes dauricus, but there was such care from Russian ornithologists on their habitat that I just couldn't let it stay merged on my page. I'm going to copy and paste this and fix it later:

Wren Troglodytes troglodytes ussuriensis (Buturlin, 1910)

Occupying the south of the continental Far East, race ussuriensis (perhaps it should be called peninsulae Clark, 1907) is everywhere associated in Primorye with the mountain-taiga landscape of Sikhote-Alin and lower mountain ranges in the southwest and west of the region. Within the taiga region of Northern Primorye, the wren's distribution is distinctly asymmetric to that of the short-tailed wren and is more consistent with variant III. In the lower-middle course of the Bikin, the species is absent in the gallery of the floodplain forest and the adjacent strip of Siberian cedars (single records in June; Yu.B. Pukinsky did not record the species for this part of the river). The participation of the wren in the bird population of Siberian cedars begins to be somewhat noticeable only at a distance of 5-7 km from the bed of the "big river", and here the pairs still strictly adhere to the ravines between the hills, with undergrowth of spruce and fir, fallen trunks and eversion roots, where, in fact, the wren and the short-tailed wren intersect and where you can hear their songs at the same time. Further, as one ascends into the mountains, the abundance of the wren steadily increases, reaching a maximum in the mountain native spruce-fir taiga, where songs are recorded both in ravines and on steep slopes with tall spruce forests (green warbler is often heard in the same places). Again

rare in the subalpine woodlands (from spruce) and even more so in the border thickets of high elfin cedar. It is rare in the canyons of the rivers of the eastern macroslope (the bobtail is a common species here). Absent in plain forest-steppe near Ussuri, but nests in small numbers on Strelnikov Ridge (June 1999).

At the level of microdivisions, the wren prefers the upper parts of mountain-taiga ravines and narrow valleys of taiga rivers sandwiched between hills. Normally avoids top ridges and pimples even in the presence of windblows here. At the same time, on the mountain slopes, singing birds are often recorded in park areas of spruce forests outside dense undergrowth and windbreak spots. It should be noted that in the cedar forests, where the wren is small and sporadic, there are noticeably more microparts, which are complex in structure and littered in the lower tier, than in the mountain spruce-fir taiga.

The wren is a strong vocalist (the song can be heard from hundreds of meters), besides, in terms of vocal microstations, it is much less “mundane” than the short-tailed one, using the entire vertical of the forest for communication. Males actively sing in the morning (5-10) hours and noticeably less often during the day on perches protruding from the lower tier (snags, broken trunks, lower branches, etc.), including in the crowns of coniferous trees. The nest is usually in the lower tier of the forest, at a height of 0.5-3 m from the ground (just in cluttered and wind-blown aboveground microstation), but sometimes under the paws of fir trees at a height of 5-10 m from the ground (such nests are found with great difficulty and hence inevitably less).

As already mentioned, the first songs of wrens are recorded very poorly in the Bikin floodplain (in 1993 in the middle reaches of the river - May 6; in 2001 in the lower reaches - May 15; in other years - not a single record in the floodplain in May). At the same time, while working on the plakors of the upper Bikin basin in 1973 and 1976, Yu.B. Pukinsky noted their mass singing until the 20th of May. After that, the wrens disappeared from the “plateau” and reappeared here only in early July, “when adult birds with fledglings descend from the mountains” (Pukinsky 2003, p. 183). At the same time, on the high Zevsky plateau in 1996, the first wrens were noted only on May 26 (very late).

Thus, the general picture of the distribution of the wren in the taiga region of Sikhote-Alin (the reverse of the distribution of the short-tailed wrens), as well as the noted features of the arrival of birds in May in different parts of the Bikin basin, suggest that local wrens migrate across the watersheds in a wide front and populate the taiga from its upper belt, starting, probably, from the earlier thawing slopes of mountains of southern exposure (but not from the high plateaus of the axial ridge). Only having settled more or less densely in the belt of pronounced mountain spruce-fir and spruce-cedar taiga, they penetrate through the ravines below, into the region

cedar-broad-leaved forests, where many of the territories they prefer are already occupied by this time. The scenario is logical, but must be confirmed by direct observation of the dynamics of the filling of the mountain-taiga landscape with both types in the second half of May. Of great interest is the study of the details of the mutual relations of nesting pairs of these two species.

## References

1. ↑ https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/razlichiya-v-zapolnenii-taygi-sploshnyh-massivov-borealnyh-lesov-melkimi-lesnymi-ptitsami-migrantami-na-primerah-neskolkih-modelnyh-dlya-1