White-winged Fairywren
A species of Fairywrens Scientific name : Malurus leucopterus Genus : Fairywrens
White-winged Fairywren, A species of Fairywrens
Botanical name: Malurus leucopterus
Genus: Fairywrens
Content
Description General Info
Photo By Don Roberson 
Description
Measuring 11 to 13.5 centimetres (4.3 to 5.3 in) in length, white-winged fairywrens are one of the two smallest species of Malurus. Males typically weigh between 7.2 and 10.9 grams (0.25 and 0.38 oz) while females weigh between 6.8 and 11 grams (0.24 and 0.39 oz). Averaging 8.5 mm (0.3 in) in males and 8.4 mm (0.3 in) in females, the bill is relatively long, narrow and pointed and wider at the base. Wider than it is deep, the bill is similar in shape to those of other birds that feed by probing for or picking insects off their environs. It is finer and more pointed in this species than in other fairywrens. Fully mature adults are sexually dimorphic, with the male being larger and differing in colour from the female. The adult female is sandy-brown with a very light blue tail, and a pinkish buff bill. The male in breeding plumage has a black bill, white wings and shoulders, and a wholly cobalt blue or black body (depending on subspecies). These contrasting white feathers are especially highlighted in flight and ground displays in breeding season. The male in eclipse plumage resembles the female, though it may be distinguished by its darker bill. Both sexes have long, slender, distinct tails held at an upward angle from their bodies. Measuring around 6.25 centimetres (2.46 in), the tail feathers have a white fringe, which disappears with wear. Nestlings, fledglings, and juveniles have brown plumage and pink-brown bills with shorter tails than adults. Young males develop blue tail feathers and darker bills by late summer or autumn (following a spring or summer breeding season), while young females develop light blue tails. By the subsequent spring, all males are fertile and have developed cloacal protuberances, which store sperm. In contrast, during the breeding season, fertile females develop oedematous brood patches, which are bare areas on their bellies. Males entering their second or third year may develop spotty blue and white plumage during the breeding season. By their fourth year, males have assumed their nuptial plumage, where the scapulars, secondary wing coverts, and secondary flight feathers are white while the rest of their bodies are a vibrant cobalt blue. All sexually mature males moult twice a year, once before the breeding season in winter or spring, and again afterwards in autumn; rarely, a male may moult directly from nuptial to nuptial plumage. The breeding males' blue plumage, particularly the ear-coverts, is highly iridescent due to the flattened and twisted surface of the barbules. The blue plumage also reflects ultraviolet light strongly, and so may be even more prominent to other fairywrens, whose colour vision extends into this part of the spectrum. 
Size
14 cm
Feeding Habits
White-winged Fairywren primarily consumes insects such as beetles, moths, and spiders, and occasionally seeds and fruits from specific plants. They forage by hopping on the ground and exhibit bursts of activity interspersed with rest and song, especially during favorable seasons. Feeding is continuous in winter due to scarcity.
Habitat
The white-winged Fairywren predominantly resides in low shrublands across arid and semi-arid environments, favoring samphire on saltpans and chenopod shrubland ecosystems. In regions where vegetation grows taller, it is typically supplanted by related fairywren species. The white-winged Fairywren is less common north of the 20° S latitude, where another species takes precedence.
Dite type
Insectivorous
General Info
Behavior
The usual form of locomotion is hopping, with both feet leaving the ground and landing simultaneously. However, birds may run when performing the rodent-run display. Its balance is assisted by a proportionally large tail, which is usually held upright and rarely still. The short, rounded wings provide good initial lift and are useful for short flights, though not for extended jaunts. White-winged fairywrens live in complex social groups. Clans consist of 2–4 birds, typically one brown or partially blue male and a breeding female. Nest helpers are birds raised in previous years which remain with the family group after fledging and assist in raising young; they may be male that have retained their brown plumage, or female. Birds in a group roost side-by-side in dense cover and engage in mutual preening. Several subgroups live within one territory and make up a clan, which is presided over by one blue (or black) male who assumes breeding plumage. While the blue male is dominant to the rest of the brown and partially blue males within his clan, he nests with only one female and contributes to the raising of only her young. It is unclear whether or not he fathers young in any of the other nests within his territory. Each clan has a specified area of land that all members contribute to foraging from and defending. Frequently, territory sizes, normally 4 to 6 hectares (10 to 15 acres), are correlated with the abundance of rain and resources in a region; smaller territories occur where insects and resources are plentiful. Additionally, the feeding territories are larger during the winter months when these birds spend much of their time foraging with the entire clan. White-winged fairywrens occupy much larger territories than other fairywren species. Observed in this species, the wing-fluttering display is seen in several situations: females responding, and presumably acquiescing, to male courtship displays, juveniles begging for food, by helpers to older birds, and immature males to senior ones. The fairywren lowers its head and tail, outstretches and quivers its wings and holds its beak open silently. Both the male and female adult white-winged fairywren may utilise a rodent-run display to distract predators from nests with young birds. The head, neck and tail are lowered, the wings are held out and the feathers are fluffed as the bird runs rapidly and voices a continuous alarm call.
Distribution Area
The white-winged fairywren is well adapted to dry environments, and M.l. leuconotus is found throughout arid and semi-arid environments between latitudes 19 and 32S in mainland Australia. It occupies coastal Western Australia from around Port Hedland south to Perth, and stretches eastwards over to Mount Isa in Queensland, and along the western parts of the Great Dividing Range through central Queensland and central western New South Wales, into the northwestern corner of Victoria and the Eyre Peninsula and across the Nullarbor. It commonly cohabits with other species of fairywren, including the purple-backed fairy-wren (M. lamberti assimilis). White-winged fairywrens often inhabit heathlands or treeless shrublands dominated by saltbush (Atriplex) and small shrubs of the genus Maireana, or grasses such as tussock grass (Triodia) and cane-grass (Zygochloa), as well as floodplain areas vegetated with lignum (Muehlenbeckia florulenta). M. l. leucopterus inhabits similar habitats on Dirk Hartog Island and M. l. edouardi does the same on Barrow Island. The white-winged fairywren is replaced to the north of its range on mainland Australia by the red-backed fairywren.
Species Status
Adults and their young may be preyed upon by mammalian predators, such as the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) or the feral cat (Felis catus), and native predatory birds, such as the Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen), butcherbird species (Cracticus spp.), laughing kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae), currawongs (Strepera spp.), crows and ravens (Corvus spp.), shrike-thrushes (Colluricincla spp.) and reptiles such as goannas. Another threat to the birds is from humans; many nests are trampled on (even by the occasional bird watcher) during breeding season because the nests are hidden close to the ground and therefore difficult for passers-by to spot.
Photo By Don Roberson 
Scientific Classification
Phylum
Chordates Class
Birds Order
Perching birds Family
Australasian wrens Genus
Fairywrens Species
White-winged Fairywren 
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