Wren
Despite its apparent familiarity as a garden bird, there is a lot more to our Wrens than meets the eye. It is the most widespread bird in the UK, equally as at home on rocky islands and in woodlands as it is in gardens. This adaptability has led to it colonising remote islands, most famously St Kilda, where it has evolved into distinct subspecies which differ in plumage tone, voice and size.
The Wren appears to us as rather a unique and distinctive bird, but it is actually the sole representative of a much bigger family, with 87 species of wren being found throughout North and South America. While a number of bird families such as tits and chickadees have colonised America from Asia, the Wren is the only American bird to have successfully colonised Eurasia. It occurs in a rather narrow band running from Japan to Iran, but is very widespread in Europe, and has crossed seas to reach North Africa and Iceland.