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On the corner of Blackall St and Macquarie St in
Barton is a group of Superb Fairy-wrens. I was watching three today:
one a male in breeding plumage, one a female, and one a male in rather
fashionable, or perhaps unfashionable, eclipse plumage.
Its tail was very blue - I am more used to seeing
non-breeding males with a "muddy" sort of blue tail - but that by itself
was not particularly noteworthy. What caught my eye was that the bird's
head and face were off-white with patches of brown, in particular a brown band
across the nape. There were also white patches in the primary remiges and
on the rump. I don't believe that the effect was a mid-moult from eclipse
to breeding plumage. These was no blue or black appearing on the head,
face or breast.
Just a guy trying to be different to attract the
girls, perhaps.
David Rosalky
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