ABC Wednesday, F for Fairywren

To enlarge the photo please click on it!


When we were on one of the beaches I showed you a couple of weeks ago,
my daughter pointed at this bird.Look at this little fellow it is called Fairywren and it lives all over Australia. So it was no surprise to find this bird on one of the beaches of north Tasmania. In Wikipedia I found some more information. During the breeding season the male is beautifully coloured with blue feathers . After the breeding season the male and female birds and also the young ones take a brownish, greyish colour.

"They are small to medium birds, inhabiting a wide range of environments, from rainforest to desert, although most species inhabit grassland or scrub. The grasswrens are well camouflaged with black and brown patterns, but other species often have brilliantly coloured plumage, especially in the males.
They are insectivorous, typically foraging in underbrush. They build domed nests in areas of dense vegetation, and it is not unusual for the young to remain in the nest and assist in raising chicks from later clutches.
Fairywrens are notable for several peculiar behavioral characteristics. They are socially monogamous and sexually promiscuous, meaning that although they form pairs between one male and one female, each partner will mate with other individuals and even assist in raising the young from such pairings. Males of several species pluck petals of conspicuous colors and display them to females for reasons unknown."


Click on these photos to enlarge them.
These photos belong to Wikipedia.

Male in breeding plumage subspecies cyaneus
Female – Victorian High Country
We thank Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC, and we must thank Roger too for the weekly job to find  ten bloggers for each of the ABC Team members  to visit and to read their posts. For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar . This week we are looking for words    beginning with F , in our new round.