PURPLE-CROWNED FAIRY-WREN

Photographed at Mornington Sanctuary, Kimberley, Western Australia, May 2015

614         PURPLE-CROWNED FAIRY-WREN           Malurus coronatus

Australia          (457)

Also known as Lilac-crowned Wren. 14-15.5 cm. Found in pandanus/paperbark thickets with tall changers and other dense low cover, mostly fringing rivers, creeks, lakes; rarely mangroves. Range: nominate race: n. and e. Kimberley (WA) from Drysdale R. e. to Victoria R. (NT); s. to upper Fitzroy, Hann and Margaret Rs. (WA) Ord R. on upper Argyle (WA). Race macgillivrayi: e. NT, from Roper, Towns, Linmen Bight, McArthur Rs. e. to Gregory-lower Leichardt Rs. (nw Q.); s. to Mallapunyah (NT); Lawn Hill NP-Riversleigh-Kimilaroi (Q). Very local, much of its habitat has been decimated by burning and livestock. Nominate race vulnerable.

RED-WINGED FAIRY-WREN

Photographed at Cheyne Beach March 2015

557         RED-WINGED FAIRY-WREN             Malurus elegans

Australia         (398)

Also known as Marsh Wren. Found in thick club and swamp vegetation, often with sword-grass and tea-tree, on margins of streams, freshwater swamps; swamp-woodlands; understory in jarrah-karri forest; moist gullies ranges; nearby eucalypt woodlands; coastal dune vegetation; well-vegetated gardens, orchards. 14-16 cm.

WHITE-WINGED FAIRY-WREN

413        WHITE-WINGED FAIRY-WREN            Malurus leucopterus

Australia            (287)

Also known as Black-and-white Fairy-wren, Blue-and-white Fairy-wren, White-backed Fairy-wren. The male has either blue or black body. 11.5-13 cm. Found in low heath, scrub, saltbush, tall grasses, low dense shrubs, tangled clumps on open, often treeless arid wastes, saltbush, holy-poly, spinifex, margins of salt lakes. Range across central Australia but not around edges from Broome, across northland down east, around to Adelaide. 

Photographed at Deniliquin, NSW February 2015

RED-BACKED FAIRY-WREN

181        RED-BACKED FAIRY-WREN        Malurus melanocephalus

Australia      (181)

This is the smallest of the fairy-wrens being only 10-13 cms. Ranges across the north of mainland Australia down the east coast to about Gloucester.  Found in open woodland, rainforest fringes, lantana, gardens.

SUPERB FAIRY-WREN

40    SUPERB FAIRY-WREN         Malurus cyaneus

Australia   (40)

Also known as Blue wren, Jenny wren, Superb Blue-wren.  Well loved Australian wren. Found in low cover, golf courses, along scrub beside roadways, forest undergrowth, riverside thickets, woodlands, coastal salt marshes. South-east Queensland, eastern NSW, most of Victoria, se SA, Tasmania.

Subspecies cyaneus, photographed Bruny Island, Tasmania February 2017

Female, subspecies cyaneus

SPLENDID FAIRY-WREN

 33          SPLENDID FAIRY-WREN           Malurus splendens

Australia   (33)

Also known as Banded, Black-backed or Turquoise Fairy-wren. 12-14 cms. 

NOTE:        4 subspecies in Australia

melanotus:             w NSW, e SA, s QLd

splendens:           sw and w WA

musgravi:              SA, s NT, e WA

emmottorum:         central Qld

Subspecies splendens, photographed near Perth, WA, July 2018

Subspecies musgravi, photographed near Whyalla, South Australia, September 2018

VARIEGATED FAIRY-WREN

19      VARIEGATED FAIRY-WREN             Malurus lamberti

Australia       (19)

Also known as Lambert's, Lavender-flanked or Purple-backed fairy-wren. It is 11-14.5 cms. Found across most of mainland Australia except Cape York, around Darwin, most of Victoria and very south of Western Australia.