Name this bird

[endymion]

What kind of bird is this?



I saw it at the state rose garden this afternoon.

Cheers,

Bruce

[Matt. K]

Er...blue headed long tail?

[Killakoala]

It's a male 'Superb Blue Wren'. Malurus cyaneus. Of the Fairy-Wren family.

Is resident of the entire South East of Aust, as far north as Brissie and down to Adelaide, including Tasmania, except deserts and plains. It likes the cover of trees and woodlands.

Even though they are quite common, they are quite 'wily' and don't like being photographed.

Well done.

[jethro]

this is a male willy wag tail

[sirhc55]

Or Bert to his friends

[jethro]

chris i thought his name was cyril

[sirhc55]

chris i thought his name was cyril

Anyone on this forum that lived in the UK back in the early 70’s will remember an ad for a bread company and out of it came an expression used all over the country - ”Nice one Cyril”

[kipper]

Killakoala hit the nail on the head. It is indeed a Superb Blue Wren. I saw quite a few of them down at Tower Hill, Koroit at Easter but the little buggers were quite evasive. I was in a Bird Hide and you're suppose to see birds in front of the hide. I come out of the Hide and they're all behind it!

[kipper]

Jethro, as far as I know the Willy Wag Tail, while it comes from the same family of birds, it's the same. I've worked at Mooney Valley Race Course and the place is full of Willy Wag Tails, but no Super Blue Wrens. So I can hardly see that it's just a male version of the Willy Wag Tail.

[sirhc55]

Killakoala hit the nail on the head. It is indeed a Superb Blue Wren. I saw quite a few of them down at Tower Hill, Koroit at Easter but the little buggers were quite evasive. I was in a Bird Hide and you're suppose to see birds in front of the hide. I come out of the Hide and they're all behind it!

Kipper - there’s a moral in your story - maybe you should use makeup

[kipper]

This is what a Willy Wag Tail looks like. Taken in a bit of a Darb style fashion, D70 and 70-200VR on front seat, me travelling 5kmh (imposed by the game warden), camera out of window - snap. Look at the composition! Unlike Darb I didn't have to crop my shot.

Edit:

This is actually a Grey Fantail.[/b]

[Gordon]

This is what a Willy Wag Tail looks like. .

I think you will find its not a Willy Wagtail, they dont have colours, just black and white, but less of the stripey bits than this one. I dont have my field guide here with me, but I am fairly sure its a Grey Fantail or a Flycatcher.

Gordon

[kipper]

I stand corrected. This is indeed a Grey Fantail. Very similar to the Willy Wag Tail. Nicole how come you didn't pick this up when I posted it to you

[Nicole]

Yes Gordon is right. This bird identification business is tricky.

[kipper]

While confirming this was a Grey Fantail, I stumbled across this website. All I can say is WOW.

http://www.birdphotos.com.au

[kipper]

Jethro, I think actually you were on the right track and I think the Superb Blue Wren is also the Fairy Wren or Super Fairy Wren. The blue one being the male. I came across this photo:



Photo by Greg Holland, from http://www.birdphotos.com.au

Awwh, aren't they sweet.

[kipper]

The two photographers on this website are awesome. Wonder what kit they use.

[kipper]

Came across this in my collection of Bird shots from Easter. This was taken on my friends property at Tower Hill. Now this is most definately a Willy Wag Tail. This time for sure Gordon, you're not going to correct me this time are you

[Gordon]

hehehe not this time, its definitely a WWT

here's a female Superb Fairy Wren from the Warrumbungles last year


I took a few others with hand held 300mm f/4.5 IF-ED lens, but they arent as sharp as I would like. Theres a lot of these birds around here at home too, I should make it a project to get some decent pics of them
Gordon

[kipper]

Nice Gordon, wish I had birds like this in our Garden. All we've got are Crows, Pidgeons (lots of em), Red Honeyeaters (the one with the red flap on the side of their head), indian noisy miners and that's about it. Nothing like these birds though.

[Manta]

Nice Gordon, wish I had birds like this in our Garden. All we've got are Crows, Pidgeons (lots of em), Red Honeyeaters (the one with the red flap on the side of their head), indian noisy miners and that's about it. Nothing like these birds though.

I'm with you Kipper. Our 'regulars' are Rainbow Lorikeets (too fast to photograph); crows (too smart to photograph); Peewees, Magpies and Butcherbirds (too boring to photograph); Friar Birds (too ugly to photograph) and Miners (too common to photograph). Occasionally we'll get a visit from a pair of Pale-Headed Rosellas (too damn skittish to photograph!)

Why can't a Peregrine Falcon swoop in and pose for me???

[Gordon]

Our 'regulars' are Rainbow Lorikeets (too fast to photograph);

yea they generally are, but I caught this pair at Woolgoolga in January, 300mm hand held. Not quite enough DOF, maybe I should have had gone and grabbed the tripod, but no doubt I wouldn't have got a shot at them at all then.



Gordon

[kipper]

I had the opportunity at Tower Hill to get a shot of a Superb Blue Wren (aka Superb Fairy Wren - Male) but I had the camera in my bag

I'm a bit nervy about walking around with a D70 and a 70-200VR around my neck. You either get looks from people thinking you're wierd. The other look is of those sizing your gear up.