Black-backed Fairy-wren
Female, back
Ellura
Brown Songlark
Wings
 
                      
Black-backed Fairy-wren (Malurus splendens ssp melanotus)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Chordates (Chordata) - Birds (Aves)
Order: Perching Birds (Passeriformes)
Family: Australian Fairy-wren (Maluridae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Black-backed Fairy-wren (Malurus splendens ssp melanotus)
This Photo:     Behaviour
Other name: Splendid Fairywren

Thank you Antoni Camozzato for confirming the id of this species for us

EXTRA - Photo Specific Information:
This behaviour is very interesting.
Within a second of the first photo being taken the male had seen us and
immediately hopped over the female to stand in front and hide her.
Until we looked at the photo we thought she had flown away.
General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Riverland and elsewhere
Males are a bright blue, mischievous rascals. Will sing loudly to distract you away from nest and family.
The hours we've spent being lead from one bush to the next and back to the first to get a shot

As with other wrens, males coming into breeding plumage are a real hotchpotch.
Females are very plain with an apricot patch around the eye, if you can get close enough to see it. Her blue tail is easy to spot, though.
We get the "Black Back" race. The black back is not easy to see.

Copyright © 2007-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 10-Nov-2007
This species is classed as NT (Near Threatened) in the Murray Mallee, SA, by DENR (Regional Species Status Assessments, July 2010)