A Tiny, Somewhat Innocuous Bird Beautifully Pops All Because Of An Enormously Long Filamentous Tail And A Gorgeous Splash Of Sky-blue!
A tiny, buff-brown bird with an enormously long filamentous tail and a gorgeous splash of sky-blue on his throat.
Meet the Southern Emu-wren
The southern emu-wren (Stipiturus malachurus) is a tiny bird with rusty brown upperparts streaked with black, and a crown with more reddish shading, and grey-brown wings. He also has a long filamentous tail around 10 cm in length composed of six feathers. The central two feathers on the tail are longer than the others. Wearing a highly distinctive blue chin his underparts are pale red-brown, fading to a paler shade on the belly. The bill is black, and his feet and eyes are brown.
Females of this species look similar to the male but lack the male’s blue throat.
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This is a shy bird and has a rather weak flight, preferring to spend most of its time hiding low in dense cover, running like a mouse, with its tail down when feeling threatened.
This bird can be found in and is endemic to Australia.
Throughout its range, the southern emu-wren inhabits marshes, low heathland, and dune areas.
These birds dine on insects and spiders gleaned from the foliage, such as katydids, beetles, wasps, flies, ants, mantids, and caterpillars. They are also known to take some vegetable matter including seeds.
The Southern Emu-wren breeds in pairs, with the male defending a small territory with regular bursts of song. The female builds an oval-shaped dome nest with a round entrance at the side. It is made from and lined with grasses placed near the ground in a grass tussock or dense shrubbery. The female lays 2-4 eggs within which she mainly incubates alone for about 12 days. The chicks are fed by both parents and fledge 8-11 days after hatching but continue to rely on the parents for food for another 2-5 months.
This species has a large breeding range and is reported to be uncommon. The population is suspected to be in decline owing to ongoing habitat destruction and fragmentation, mainly through clearance for agriculture and the construction of dams for water storage.
You can watch and listen to this bird right here in the video below:
H/T Wikipedia – Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Superb By Name And Covered In Beautiful Shades Of Glossy Metallic Green, Blue, And Bronze Makes Him Superb To Look At Too!
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