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Tag: wrens

Deep South WA, Feb ‘25 (#17 in series: very shy, very small, solitary)

 

I am almost certain that the pictured bird is a spotted scrubwren, Sericornus maculatus – the southwestern Australian version of southeastern Australia’s white-browed scrubwren.

The “spotted” and the “white-browed” were formerly regarded as two subspecies.

Since 2019, the prevailing classification regards them as two distinct species…albeit ones that are known to interbreed where their ranges overlap, around Adelaide.

The spotted scrubwren lives in densely vegetated places along the coastal “fringe”, from Adelaide, through to Shark Bay.

Currently, four subspecies are generally recognised.

Glimpsed fleetingly, spotted scrubwrens appear to be “drab”, but a closer view reveals that their plumage is in fact finely detailed.

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Deep South WA, Feb ‘25 (#16 in series: strutting outside the surf gallery)

 

Whilst enjoying coffee on the Surf Gallery’s verandah we also enjoyed a close encounter with the pictured individual.

Click this for more info on this splendid species, which is endemic to near-coastal, well-vegetated places in southwest WA.

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Deep South WA, Feb ‘25 (#5 in series: flaunting it)

 

 

 

No prize for guessing that you are looking at a male of its species.

This species – Malurus elegans, the Red-winged fairywren – can only be looked at in Australia’s southwestern corner.

Shy and secretive. Difficult to observe, says The Complete Guide to Australian Birds.

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“Landscape” view/ much closer view (#11B in series: Creery Wetland, day’s end)

 

 

As dusk began on 05 April 2024, we made our way back from Peel Inlet’s edge and adjacent (unseasonably dry) samphire-dominated wetland.

Before our return to suburbia we skirted some mostly-intact, mostly-native scrub/woodland.

We “met” a few kangaroos, but by 5. 51 pm we were the only humans within view,

Unexpectedly, something lovely – something flaunting – briefly appeared..

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A tiny slice of a wren’s life

 

If the relevant timepiece registered only minutes and hours, it would have said “9. 23 am” through all of this post’s eight images, which are presented in chronological order.

As it happens, my camera also records seconds, so I know that only 39 of them elapsed from first to eighth photo.

From image “1” through “7” only 21 seconds passed.

A recently-bathed Superb Fairy Wren – Malurus cyaneus – can adopt a great many different positions within such a “short” time!

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