Superb Fairy-wren
Male, singing
White-winged Fairy-wren
| Superb Fairy-wren Male, singing | | White-winged Fairy-wren | | ||
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Chordates (Chordata) - Birds (Aves) | |||
| Order: | Perching Birds (Passeriformes) | ||||
| Family: | Australian Fairy-wren (Maluridae) | ||||
| Species: | Superb Fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus ssp leggei) | ||||
| This Photo: | Male, eclipse plumage | ||||
General Species Information: Found in the Adelaide Hills and possibly elsewhere More formal looking than the splendid; like wearing a grey suit with a black & sky blue scarf and cap. Had a nice long chat with Rose Fletcher (she observed a nest daily for about 6 weeks), and there seems to be come conjecture, elsewhere, surrounding the colours & identification of males (non-breeding), females & juveniles. 1. The Downy feathers typically associated with juveniles seem to be a trait of the adults of this family 2. A black beak means it's a male 3. Juvenile males have red surrounding the eye. The very young don't have much red, then they all get more; the males then loose the red as they come to adult-hood 4. Females have blue tails (seems a contentious point with some birders) 5. Males with breeding plumage can have more blue in their throat than those presented here; yet our books suggest we only get the one sub-species | |||||
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