Just reading through my new field guide i saw a pic (not photo) of a male superb fairy wren looking like the female except for the blue tail with a small note next to it saying
"non-breeding" and another one with it losing it's 'mask' saying "molting". I have never noticed anything like this, has anyone else or is it the possiblilty the book is wrong?
Imature male Fairy Wrens look similar to female except for a couple of distinguishing features like the blue on the tail of the one you mentioned. They change to the "male" colours in the breeding season and then molt back to the dull colours for I think the first 3-5 seasons and then stay in the "male" colours. Thats as far as I know.
See Yez
Trev
Trev has it right.
Young male SFW's will moult from their breeding plumage into 'eclipse' plumage at the end of the breeding season (so around March/April. They go a brown/grey colour but keep the blue tail and black beak - females and imm. have a brown beak.
At the start of the breeding season - July/August - they will moult again into breeding plumage.
Its apparently linked to the quality of the male and testosterone levels - so older males tend to have more testosterone and are 'better' mates and, while they still moult, they maintain their breeding plumage throughout the year.
Holly
Thanks for the info, very interesting, though I'm surprised I've never seen them like that before because we have a few that visit every month, or maybe I just thought it was a female...
That's correct. You can see an image I made along the shores of the Nepean River on Aug 26, 2007. So this one must be coming into heat by that time of the year.
http://amatteroflight.com/gallery2/d/3111-1/Superb-Fairy-wren-eclipse_6610.jpg
Hi all I have emailed Holly about removing this spammer
Cheers
Birdie
Sunshine Coast Queensland