There are three birds that occur in my area whose common names feature “house” as a descriptor: House Sparrow, House Finch, and House Wren. In my experience, the distribution of these three “house birds” seems to follow the pattern of population density. House Sparrow is an introduced species from Europe, and like humans who immigrated to the New World, it has adapted well to life in towns and cities. As urban concentration of houses thins out toward the suburbs, House Sparrows are gradually replaced by House Finches. As to House Wrens, they don’t come into view until we reach the rural country. That last point may not be true in other regions. A friend who lived in Missouri told me that House Wren would nest anywhere, even under your car if you didn’t drive the car for a day. I’ve never experienced such abundance of House Wren. My single encounter of a House Wren near any house happened just this year on a trip to Sierra Valley. At the “ranch” where we stayed, a family of House Wr