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Superb Fairywren — printable fact sheet
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Superb Fairywren
Malurus cyaneus
The superb fairywren (Malurus cyaneus) of southeastern Australia looks like a model of domestic virtue and is nothing of the kind. Pairs are socially monogamous and stay together for years, assisted by helpers at the nest who are usually their own grown sons, but genetic testing…
Did you know?
- Superb Fairywrens have been observed presenting flower petals to females as part of their courtship behavior.
- About three-quarters of superb fairywren chicks are fathered by a male other than the one raising them, one of the highest infidelity rates known in birds. Males carry brightly coloured flower petals to females on neighbouring territories, choosing colours that contrast with their own blue. Mothers sing a password to their unhatched eggs, and chicks that cannot reproduce it in their begging call are fed less, which exposes cuckoo impostors. Males moult out of their brilliant blue and back into drab brown in the non-breeding season, so half the year they look like the females.
What I learned
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