Habits
Usually in pairs or small family groups, with brown-plumaged birds dominating.
Food
Insects, mainly bettles and ants. Occasionally some plant material.
Voice
Song includes a tremulous trill. Also extremely high-pitched, short, vibrating trills, a loud whistled trill. A weak 'trrip' and soft 'sreee' contact calls.
Nest
Domed, with a side-entrance near the top, composed of dry grass, lined with feathers, fine grass and fur, placed near the ground in tangled grass or a low bush.
Eggs (Guide)
Usually 3, sometimes 4 or 2; white, spotted with red-brown; long-oval; about 17 x 14 mm. Incubation: 13 - 16 days; by female.
Young
Altricial, nidicolous. Fledge in 12 - 14 days.
Subspecies
Forms a superspecies with Superb Fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus); these two, together with Purple-crowned Fairy-wren (Malurus coronatus), constitute the "Australian blue group". Subspecies originally treated as constituting three separate species, but interbreed wherever they meet. Birds from central Australia long referred to as subspecies callainus, but type specimen for that name is apparently an intergrade, and therefore taxonomically unidentifiable; name replaced by musgravi. As many as seven subspecies described from early collections, but later studies have shown that most represent clinal variation, e.g. whitei (described from interior New South Wales) is regarded as representing part of clinal variation of melanotus, and aridus (interior of Western Australia) is now included within nominate.
The following 5 subspecies are recognised:
splendens (Quoy & Gaimard, 1830) - South-western WA north to southern Pilbara and east to the western fringe of the Great Victoria and Gibson Deserts.
melanotus Gould, 1841 - Central and western Murray - Darling Basin, north to Copper Basin Watershed, Gowan Ranges and around Bollon, Qld.
musgravi Mathews, 1922 - Central Australia north to Tanami - Tennant Creek, NT, west to the eastern fringe of the Great Sandy, Gibson and Great Victoria Deserts, WA, south to northern Eyre Peninsula, SA and east to the western fringe of the Flinders Ranges, Lower Lake Eyre Basin and Simpson Desert. Synonmous with callainus?.
emmottorum Schodde & Mason, IJ, 1999 - Central uplands of the upper Cooper - Diamantina Basin, Qld.
callainus Gould, 1867 - Central and south-central Australia.
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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BirdLife International Species Factsheet