Seen in a Different Light: Superb Fairy-wrens
December 2006
No sooner than we had parked our campervan on the grassy campground at Dandabah in the Bunya Mountains National Park when I noticed a group of tiny birds with cocked tails feeding on the grass. I was thrilled to discover it was a family group of Superb Fairy-wrens: two males and several females with a fledgling in tow. Of course, I was out of the camper with my 500mm lens like a shot!
The fairy-wrens were extremely confiding and, lowering my tripod almost to ground level, I soon had a number of good shots. After a while, though it became clear that a sunlit “fairy-wren on a lawn” was all I was going to get. After getting essentially the same kinds of shots the next morning, I began to look for other situations in which to capture them.
Next evening I was heading back from the forest out across the campground when I noticed the wrens were flitting to and from an area of lush ferns, which was by this time already in shade. Probably their fledgling was hiding among the dense foliage. When the male landed on a fern in the gorgeous soft light, I got the shot I wanted.
It’s interesting to compare the two images, photographed in totally different light: one sunlit, the other in open shade after sunset with fill flash. The latter is more evenly lit, allowing you to see detail in all the feather areas (compare the black throat). Of course the beautiful fern perch helps too. Plus the shaded fairy-wren has the “cute” factor: he’s a little chilly so he’s fluffed out. I much prefer the more softly lit image.
Like all fairy-wrens, Superb Fairy-wrens are social, living in communal groups that maintain a territory. They are cooperative breeders: the dominant breeding pair has various adult helpers of various sexes and ages (grown offspring from previous years) that assist in raising the young.