The St Kilda wren on the island of Hirta is often found nesting in crevices on the cliffs, and in association with puffin colonies, but that is not the case with the Fair Isle wren, where the low red sandstone cliffs are rather bare, with friable rock and earth slides, and small patches of tufted vegetation.

The main breeding habitat of Fair Isle wrens is boulder beaches at the tip of long inlets.

The boulders provide the shelter lacking on the cliffs, but even so, the windswept south-west of the island hosts few wrens.

[3] The Fair Isle wren spends much time feeding on the foreshore among the dead seaweed cast up by the tide.

[3] Fair Isle is a small island, 7.68 km2 (2.97 sq mi) in area, and the population of the wren is tiny, varying from ten to fifty pairs, breeding mainly on boulder beaches.