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Superb Fairy-wren (female)
Malurus cyaneus cyanochlamys
-26.539, 151.836
Field Notes
Description:
"Females and young birds are mostly brown above with a dull red-orange area around the eye and a brown bill. Females have a pale greenish gloss, absent in young birds, on the otherwise brown tail. The legs are brown..." (Birdlife Australia)
Habitat:
Heading off over the fence into the neighbours backyard, Kingaroy. Location is not exact as it was at my family's home.
Notes:
Whenever we were sitting outside these little birds would more often than not be hanging about :)
I found this interesting about their calls as it is in relation to parasitism by cuckoos: "Strangely, the bird appears to also use song as a password for its chicks to give it a chance to avoid cuckoo parasites." (Wiki)
"Female fairy-wrens teach their chicks a vocal password before they hatch to distinguish them from brood parasitic bronze-cuckoo chicks" (GrrlScientist, Hosted by The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2012/nov/13/animalbeh… )
More reading about this vocalisation: http://www.australasianscience.com.au/news/december-2012/wren-password-…
Reference: http://birdlife.org.au/bird-profile/superb-fairy-wren
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