I was watching a group of Superb Fairy-wrens the other day when this male caught my eye. Does anyone else think that he looks different to the norm?? Maybe it's just me.
Would love to hear what you think 
Cheers, Jackie
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seems to have more blue on his back?
Cheers Beef!
Did you see it in a different light? Are you sure it's only one bird? Could there be a second tail?There are also a few blue reflections in other places in your photo. Apart from the blue looking too big, the wings are too black.
I just looked through about 200 of my own photos of male Fairy-Wrens, none of them is that black either. Have a look at one of my pics, the wings are mostly brown.
M-L
me again, I think you have two male birds, I can see two tails. That also makes the neck look bigger, as the second bird sits behind the first.
M-L
Thanks Beef and Araminta
Araminta, the day I took the photos was slightly overcast and he was in the shade of a tree. I had another look at the photos and heavily cropped but I do not think there are two birds?? The colour (the amount of blue and black) is what is puzzling me. The amount of blue is what caught my eye in the first place while I was watching them. Let me know what you think of the other pics ;0)
Thanks, Jackie.
certainly looks to be black and blue unlike the normal Superb F-W
these are teritorial so you will have to keep watching for him
was it a backyard pic or a public place pic that you can tell us about in case someone else wants to go looking?
Peter
Thanks Peter, no not public. I was hangning over my neighbours fence to get the pics. I only wish I was closer or that I had better equipment!!
Jackie
hi jackie, where is the locality? I hope this one stays around for you to observe as I also think that the colouring is unusual, even around the eye. Is the neighbour open to a visit with camera in tow or is your fence the best vantage point anyway? Hope to see more
Sue
well keep looking for him
Peter
That's fascinating - looks nothing like a superb blue wren. I wonder if its a wild variegation or an overseas visitor perhaps.
It looks a little like this one:
http://www.treknature.com/gallery/Oceania/Australia/photo166339.htm
I can't find anything else that looks similar. It could just be a bad angle, but wth 2 different photos, it certainly looks like it is a weird aberration.
- soakes
soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia
an interesting statement, can you explain further, ie the tail is more whistler-like and the head is more .......
and in the 1st pic there is an attendant female S F-W
Peter
Sue, I am at South Maroota. I will ring the neighbour and ask him if I can enter his property. I think he is on 25 acres or more? I hope he stays around too
I tried to find some pics also soakes and found this that looks similar.
http://www.stevehapp.com/birds/images/log-4980.jpg
Maybe I am missing something? Could it be a display for territory or breeding where their feathers change?
Thanks for the interest everyone
Cheers, Jackie.
Sorry Jackie,I answered early this morning, but my post is not here. I'll try again. There are a few unusual facts about this, the blue colour in a "normal" Fairy-Wren doesn't go all the way around to the front of the neck. Your bird also has the blue under the throat, rather than on the cheek, and the wings are all black in your bird. I have looked through about 200 of my photos, and not a single one has black wings, they all have brown wings. So, your bird is some mutation.
M-L
Just had a look at the links soakes and you gave, both of those look like "normal" Fairy-Wrens. Have a good look at the blue feathers, they are on the cheek, and not under the chin as they are in your bird.
M-L
Don't take me too literally pacman :) maybe I should have said: From my inexperienced eye it doesn't appear to have the same features as the bird in Araminta's photo.
Well you have me stumped... its definitely a fairy-wren - and it has to be a superb. There are 6 separate races so perhaps this is a variation of one of them?
Thanks Araminta and Holly
Interestingly Sue has also posted some photos of a male SFW in the General forum and I think this gives us the answer.
Cheers, Jackie.
this thread has been interesting
I followed your above link and thought that pic was very similar to yours
so I emailed Steve Happ and asked what he had photographed and he replied 'Superb Fairy-wren'
Peter
Hi Jackie, I had to find those photos,
Yesterday I saw a male Wren looking exactly like the one in your photo. I had my camera in my hand, but didn't get a photo of the bird doing it. It was courting a female and at the same time fighting off another male. So it could have been either part of the courting/ mating ritual, or threatening the other male bird. Either way, here is your answer now: IT IS A NORMAL SUPERB FAIRY Wren. I'm very excited and glad I have seen it. I hope you read this.
I took some photos minutes after the display, the bird looks a lot the way they look doing "the rodent run", but before that it looked just like the one in your photo.
I will post the other photos as soon as I find them.
M-L
Here is the same bird minutes after it showed the same display as the one in your photo. Do you remember that there was another male or female wren close by when you saw this??? I would so like to get to the bottom of this. Who knows, I might see it again one day.
M-L
That last guy does look like he is going to do a rodent run - flattening the feathers on his head and he seems to be flattening the ones on his back over his wings too...
Here is a photo of one of the females involved. So do you think there were babies somewhere? I got the impression there were two different things going on at the same time. There was a male&female couple defending their young, and a new male intruder trying to steal one of the females. Holly, do you think I could be right? But the male looked just likethe one in Jackie's photo to start with, so that seems to be a common colour display???
The posture of this female has to have a meaning, do you know what it is? Have you seen it before?
M-L
I will have to go through the fairy-wrens and grasswrens book in our work library. It could very much be a defense posture if there is another male hanging about.
The more I observe Wrens, the more I get fascinated by them. Thanks Holly.
M-L
Looks like it could be a threat display by the male. Maybe by the female, too.