The Carolina Wren is a very vocal bird, with a number of different calls (12 listed in BNA).
This is its scolding call, with Gray Catbird calling (July, NJ)
Dit calls and faster scolding (June, PA)
Scolding by a pair of Carolina Wrens (Feb, PA).
Jeer call and dit note (June, NJ)
jeer, a male-only, learned call
dit, a female and juv male-only call (BNA)
Dit calls (June, NJ). These can sound a little like a Winter Wren, but the notes of the doublets are usually closer together, and are clearer, more ringing.
Rattle (Nov, NJ)
Faster rattle, which can sound very similar to the House Wren (Oct, NJ)
Lower churr-like alarm (Sep, NJ).
Squeaky chirp-like calls.
Adult pair with similar squeaky calls near fledglings (June, PA)
Same pair but different squeaky calls by adult Carolina Wren near fledglings (June, PA)
Squeaky and scolding calls by family of Carolina Wrens (May, NJ)
Female Carolina Wrens have a chatter that often overlaps the singing male; it sounds like a call but may represent a song, as many related species in the tropics duet. Each chatter is preceded by another female-only call, nyerk.
nyerk and first few notes of chatter
time scale reduced
Scolding calls of House Wren, a family of birds (July, NJ)
scolding call (Aug, PA)
scolding (June, PA).
Slower scolding by a House Wren (July, PA).
A doubled scold (Apr, PA)
Scolding calls of House Wren (in this case more rapid) and Carolina Wren together for comparison (June, PA).
time scale reduced
"Hard" alarm calls near nest (June, NJ)
Faster alarm calls (July, NJ)
Another fast version (Apr, PA).
Mew-like alarm calls:
Another example of this alarm, which could be mistaken for a catbird (male, Apr, PA).
The Winter Wren call is most often doubled or tripled, but otherwise sounds similar to the chimp call of the Song Sparrow (Feb, NJ)
This bird called only once each time(Oct, PA)
This individual, perhaps more agitated, called more rapidly at times (Dec, PA)
Song Sparrow chimp call for comparison (Aug, NJ)
This migrant Winter Wren uttered a staccato alarm call, a less commonly heard vocalization that I have heard usually at dawn (Mar, PA).
This is a recording of the alarm call of a Winter Wren in England in December. It's quite different from its Eastern US cousins.
Another version of the alarm call. This is a recording of the alarm call of a Winter Wren in England in April. The two have now been split into separate species.
Marsh Wren, three different scolding calls (May, NJ).
The first call is the one I hear from migrants in the fall.
Each wren species has its own distinctive calls, but other calls are very similar to each other. For example, this call by a migrant Marsh Wren is similar to some House Wren calls (Sep, PA).
Sedge Wren calls, three examples by birds on breeding grounds in June, North Dakota.
Calls by a migrant, a churr and the chip, which recalls Yellow-rumped Warbler but is richer (Nov, PA).
A churr and two different chips by migrant, with Marsh Wren calling (Oct, PA).
Same bird, the churr and the chip that is used to start off the song.
Higher chip-like calls by a male on territory (Aug, PA).
Longer churr by a breeding bird (Aug, PA).