Superb Fairywren male

I love photographing tiny birds!

 

Superb Fairywren (Malurus cyaneus)
1/800, f/5.6, ISO 1600, focal length 436mm
Canon EOS 5DsR, Canon EF 200-400 f4L IS USM Ext

 

I photographed this little fellow on my most recent trip to Portland to catch up with the gannets. I was hoping to photograph a Southern Emu-wren, which I could have if I’d been focussing on the track when one flew low across the road and disappeared into the grasses, pausing just long enough to tease.

The Superb Fairywren in the photograph is a non-breeding male; a hint of blue can be seen on his wing. Female Superb Fairywrens have a brown bill as well as orange-brown lores and tiny orange-brown feathers around their eyes.

There have been a few mentions of fairywrens on the facebook page Australian Bird Identification. It’s a fabulous group where you can get expert help to identify species and sub-species. Posters have called various species ‘fairy wrens’, ‘fairy-wrens’ and ‘fairywrens’. As there are no species of wren in Australia the first option is incorrect. I used to write fairy-wren but gave the hyphen a miss quite a while ago as I prefer the simpler version.

To start with I wasn’t sure about the background in this image but the more I look at it the more I like it, though I can’t justify why, unless it’s the angle of the blurriness or the colour, both of which are a bit odd really.

Happy birding

Kim

 

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WARNING – GRAPHIC image reproduced in link below

I hope politicians will soon permanently protect our native waterbirds and promote their exquisite wetland homes as sites for ethical and sustainable nature-based tourism.

The sad story behind this devastating photograph of a little penguin

 

 

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