Welcome to ecocentre blue wrens general information

Where Superb Fairy-Wrens Live

Superb Fairy-wrens or Blue Wrens occur in South Eastern Australia in areas where rainfall exceeds 400 mm per annum. States include Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the South Eastern corner of South Australia.

They are found in areas that combine a dense cover of low shrubs, tussocks and bracken interspersed with bare or open grassy ground in forests, heaths and scrub along the coast and inland watercourses.

Figure 1. Breeding male Superb Fairy-wren overlooking his territory at Elwood Foreshore

As the most successful species to adapt to urban and other man modified environments, Superb Fairy-wrens are the best known of the nine Australian species of Fairy-wrens. They would have been common throughout much of the area that is now metropolitan Melbourne, urban development has fragmented the general population into smaller localized populations.

Identifying Superb Fairy-Wrens

Even if you don't see the wrens, you may be alerted to their presence by their brisk, merry calls.

Not all Superb Fairy-wrens are blue; in fact most within a social group are actually brown. It is only the breeding male within the group who displays the brilliant blue colours and only for the duration of the breeding season. For the Superb Fairy-wren that is most of the year, except for the winter months.

Some males retain their blue colour all year round, but that is the exception rather than the rule. If you look for these birds in winter all you may find are a group of brown birds, some with blue tails.

The breeding male has bright electric blue and contrasting black plumage on the head and back, a dark blue throat and rich blue tail. The belly is greyish white and wings are brown.

Females are entirely brown above with a brown tail, and an off white breast. They have a brown bill and a light tan area around the eye.

Non-breeding and young males are similar to the female, but are easily distinguished by having a rich blue tail and a black bill. Some non-breeding males have the light tan area around the eye, but not as prominent as that on the female.

Figure 2. Non-breeding male with typical brown plumage, black beak and blue tail

Breeding males are often sighted perched atop a shrub, uttering their rapid high-pitched twittering call.

This territorial display call and their striking blue plumage will easily catch your eye. Look more closely and you’ll usually see a group of small brown birds accompanying him. They are all part of the family, typically comprising the mother and ‘stay at home sons and daughters’ from previous broods.

All Fairy-wrens have weak powers of flight and only fly short distances across clearings or from bush to bush. They have long and relatively strong legs, which they use most of the time to good effect hopping on the ground or within shrubs foraging for food.

How Superb Fairy-Wrens Live

Figure 3. Three of the Elwood Canal family group. (female top left, with juvenile males)

How Superb Fairy-Wrens Live Continued

Superb Fairy-wrens are social birds living and working as a family group within a defined territory. Each group is usually comprised of a breeding bright blue male, a female bird 'the mother', which is his breeding partner, and a number of non-breeding sexually mature 'sons and daughters' from previous broods.

The number of individuals in a group may vary from 2-6, consisting of the dominant pair plus 0 to 4 helpers. They forage in family groups, which is advantageous, as insects disturbed by one bird are very likely to be consumed by another in the group.

Living as a group is an advantage to the survival of this species, as all the wrens in the family group assist in feeding and protecting the nestlings and fledglings, and in defending the territory (typically 0.5-2.0 hectares) from other Blue Wrens.

Figure 4. Moulting male in transition from brown to blue

During the day, they seem to be constantly on the move, venturing from cover of dense shrubs a few metres or so onto open ground to feed for short periods before retreating to the shrubs. During the night they huddle side by side on a horizontal perch to sleep.

Recent research has found that Superb Fairy-wrens are among the least faithful birds in the world to their breeding partners (Anne Peters 2002).

Detailed research was undertaken by a diverse team of researchers on a population of these wrens in the Canberra Botanic Gardens over a period of 15 years. They found that Superb Fairy-wrens led complex social lives, with interaction between a number of what initially appear to be harmonious family groups.

This interaction ultimately leads to adultery between different breeding pairs. The female does not always mate with the breeding male in her own family group, but rather moves to another group, sometimes hundreds of metres away, and mates with the breeding male of that group.

She would do this, because that particular male is more attractive to her than her normal partner (Anne Peters 2002).

Breeding female Superb Fairy-wrens have demonstrated that they favour males with the brightest colours, and which moult and convert to their bright blue plumage early in the winter. It appears that males moulting late in the winter or into early spring are not in the race to entice the breeding females.

Unknowingly, the breeding male and family helpers may well be assisting to rear fledglings sired by a neighboring male from another family group (Anne Peters 2002).

What Superb Fairy-Wrens Eat

Figure 5: Female feeding over algae

Superb Fairy-wrens feed on a broad range of small animal life, mainly insects and other small arthropods. Feeding activity takes place in the family group and occurs mostly on the ground or within the low grasses and shrubs forming their protective habitat. They have been recorded eating seeds to a much lesser extent.

In Elwood the wrens have been observed feeding within the tidal zone among the seaweed and algae on the rocks, presumably looking for small crustaceans.

Breeding Behaviour:

Compared to other Fairy-wrens the breeding season for this species is of long duration from July to March, with most activity occurring between September and January.

The female alone constructs a spherical nest with a side entry usually consisting of grass stems, moss, rootlets, twigs, spiders’ web, animal hairs and lined with feathers. Some nests in Bayside have contained paper and plastic. It is well hidden in tussocks, low shrubs, or occasionally in dense foliage up to 6 metres.

The female will lay three to four eggs, which she incubates on her own, but all wrens in the family group assist in feeding and protecting the young once hatched. Given all the assistance she receives the female Blue Wren may successfully raise three broods in a season.

References

• Barker R.D & Vestjens W.J.M. Food of Australian Birds. CSIRO
• Emison W.B., Beardsell C.M., Norman F.I., Loyn R.H., Bennett S.C. (1987). Atlas of Victorian Birds, Conservation Forests & Lands, Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union
• Longden, M. (Bayside Friends of Native Wildlife) (2002). Superb Fairy Wrens, The Bird Observer No 818
• Morcombe M. (2000). Field Guide to Australian Birds. Steve Parish Publishing
• Peters A. (2002). The Burden of Beauty, Nature Australia Magazine, Vol 27 Number 6: pp 30 - 37
• Pizzey G. & Knight F. (1997). Field Guide to the Birds of Australia. Angus & Robertson
• Simpson K. & Day N. (2004). Field Guide to the Birds of Australia. Viking
• Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds (2nd ed. 1997)

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