Ms Tiny Tail

Recently I watched what looked like an animated pingpong ball bobbing around as it foraged; it was a female Superb Fairywren with her entire tail missing.

I was so happy to capture the shot above showing that her tail is growing back nicely. To loose all her tail feathers means that she must have very narrowly escaped a predator. Since the fires, Brown Goshawks and Collared Sparrowhawks are here more frequently, or maybe it was a passing fox or cat. Whatever it was I’m so pleased that she survived and is on the mend.

When her tail has fully regrown it will form about half of her overall length.

For tail-length comparison I chose another photograph that I took recently. When I was looking at the thumbnail I thought it was a female, it wasn’t until I opened it for processing that I was puzzled. The first thing I noticed was the amount of blue in its tail, which is more consistent with non-breeding male plumage. Then I saw the soft grey-blues of its wing coverts which made it look even more likely to be male, rather than a female with a bluer-than-usual tail. At a glance, its bill and lores looked female but looking more closely I noticed that the tip of its bill appears to be turning black. All of which finally led me to believe that it’s a young male!

I’ll keep my eyes open for little Ms Tiny Tail, hopefully I’ll see her again before her tail is the same length as the others in her family group.

Happy birding, Kim

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