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Articles

Vol. 53 No. 3 (2022)

APPARENT PREDATION BY ROCK WREN OF COMMON SAGEBRUSH LIZARD

Submitted
September 10, 2025
Published
July 1, 2022

Abstract

 Analyses of the stomach contents of wrens (Troglodytidae) rarely report vertebrates (Beal et al. 1916, Bent 1948, Poulin et al. 2001, lopes et al. 2005), and few published records exist of wrens capturing and consuming vertebrate prey. We report here on a rock Wren (Salpinctes obsoletus) that was seen apparently preying upon a Common Sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus graciosus). The observation occurred on 11 June 2015 during the Western Field Ornithologists convention held in Billings, Montana, on a field trip Casey led to Bear Canyon. Bear Canyon is located in Carbon County on the south side of the Pryor Mountains in south-central Montana at the northern edge of the Wyoming Basin Ecoregion near the Montana/Wyoming border (Marks et al. 2016). This arid canyon is bounded by outcropped limestone and supports a dominant vegetation of utah Juniper (Juniperus osteosperma), limber Pine (Pinus flexilis), and Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata).

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