the.com/wren
a thimble of bird with the lungs of an opera house
means A tiny, round-bodied songbird, often with a cocked-up tail and a song startlingly loud for its size.
from From Old English 'wrenna,' a word of murky Germanic stock — its kin appear across the old North Sea languages, though scholars can't trace it to any clear deeper root. In British folklore the wren was the 'king of birds,' supposedly winning the crown by hiding in the eagle's feathers and flying higher than any — a tale that long outlived any solid account of where the name itself was born.
- volume
- sings ten times louder per ounce than a rooster
- architecture
- males build several decoy nests to impress one female
- size
- weighs about as much as two coins
- royal scandal
- folklore crowned it king by hiding atop an eagle
- posture
- tail cocked permanently upright like an exclamation mark
winter wren — tiny north american bird, 3.5 inches long, with the loudest song relative to body size
house wren — common breeding songbird across north and south america, known for aggressive territory defense
christopher wren — english architect who designed st paul's cathedral in london, completed 1697