"Black" White-winged Fairy Wren

["Reg Clark" <>]

Hello Jill,

Hi Jill
Some years ago I was taking part in a survey of arid land birds in the south
Simpson Desert. During the survey we commonly saw White-winged Fairy Wrens
and as the season had been a good one , there were many of them. At the time
I was surprised at what appeared to be variety in the different shades of
blue which ranged from a pale "washed-out" shade to a colour so deep as to
seem black . Whether this was actually a range of plumage colour or an
illusion due to viewing angle, sunlight and shade it is hard to say but at
the time I had the strong impression  that I was seeing  several shades of
blue., which I considered might be due to age or moult, diet or maybe the
local environment which tendered to lighter colours in some of the local
fauna.  Anyway, a full-colour , sky-blue male trilling on the top of a low
bush in full sunlight is hard to forget.

Reg