Maluridae
Superb Fairywren
Malurus cyaneus
The Sapphire Thread
- Length
- 14 cm
- Wingspan
- 16 cm
- Family
- Maluridae
Identification
In breeding dress the male is a thread of sky: brilliant blue crown, cheek and back, black throat, and a long cocked blue tail. Females and eclipse males are warm fawn-brown with a russet lores patch and the same cocked tail. Parties move like a single thought through low cover.
Distinctive marks
- Male: electric blue and black
- Female: brown with rufous lores
- Long, often-cocked tail
- Tiny, bouncing hops
- Always near dense low cover
Behaviour & ecology
Cooperative breeders. A blue male is attended by brown helpers. They work the understorey, vanish into a correa, and reappear three metres along. The blue is seasonal clothing; the society is year-round.
Voice
A high, reeling reel and sharp 'trit' contact notes. Easy to miss until you tune to it.
On the Peninsula
Tea-tree, coastal scrub, and any garden that has kept a messy understorey on the Peninsula.
Season
Blue males are at their height in spring and summer.
Diet
Small insects and other invertebrates taken from foliage and the ground.
Conservation
Secure, but local declines follow the tidying-away of cover.
Lore & resonance
The blue is not a colour so much as a decision. One moment the thicket is brown; the next a sapphire thread stitches it together and is gone.
If you would attract them
Keep a thicket. Correa, saltbush, tea-tree, and unpruned corners matter more than any nectar feeder. Cats are the enemy of this bird.
