Superb Fairy-wren
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| Superb Fairy-wren | ||||||||||||||
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 Breeding male | ||||||||||||||
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| Malurus cyaneus Latham, 1783 |
The Superb Fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus) is the best-known of all fairy-wrens, and in south-eastern Australia is frequently known simply as the blue wren. It is common throughout most of the relatively wet and fertile south-eastern corner of the continent, from the south-east of South Australia, through all of Victoria, coastal and sub-coastal New South Wales, and Queensland as far north as the Brisbane area, and also in Tasmania. Superb Fairy-wrens occupy wide range of habitat types, and are found in almost any area that has at least a little dense undergrowth for them to shelter in, including grasslands with scattered shrubs, moderately thick forest, woodland, heaths, and domestic gardens.
Like all fairy-wrens, the Superb Fairy-wren is an active and restless feeder, particularly on open ground near shelter, but also through the lower foliage. Movement is a series of jaunty hops and bounces, assisted by the huge tail, which is usually held upright, and rarely still. The diet is a wide range of small creatures, mostly insects, supplemented by small quantities of seeds, flowers, and fruit.
Females, immatures, and non-breeding males are a plain fawn colour, lighter underneath, with the tail fawn (females and immatures) or dull greyish blue (males). Breeding males, however, take on rich blue tones around the head, chest and back.
