Maluro Elegante

Identificación

The red-winged fairywren is 15 cm (6 in) long and weighs 8–11 g (0.28–0.39 oz), making it the largest of the fairywrens. The average tail length is 7.5 cm (3.0 in), among the longest in the genus. Averaging 10 mm (0.4 in) in males and 9.3 mm (0.4 in) in females, the bill is relatively long, narrow and pointed, and wider at the base. Wider than it is deep, the bill is similar in shape to those of other birds that feed by probing for or by picking insects off of their environs.<p>Like other fairywrens, the red-winged fairywren is notable for its marked sexual dimorphism, males adopting a highly visible breeding plumage of brilliant iridescent blue and chestnut contrasting with black and grey-brown. The brightly coloured crown, ear tufts and upper back are prominently featured in breeding displays. The male in breeding plumage has a silvery blue crown, ear coverts and upper back, a black throat and nape, bright red-brown shoulders, a long grey-brown tail and wings, and a greyish-white belly. Non-breeding males, females and juveniles are predominantly grey-brown in colour, though males may retain traces of blue and black plumage. All males have a black bill and lores (eye-ring and bare skin between eyes and bill), while females have a black bill, rufous lores and pale grey eye-ring. Immature males will develop black lores by six weeks of age and generally moult into an incomplete breeding plumage the first breeding season after hatching. This has a patchy or spotty appearance, with a mixture of blue and grey feathers on the head, and black and grey on the breast; birds born early in the breeding season will gain more nuptial plumage initially than those born late. Most perfect their nuptial moult by their second spring, though some may need another year. Several males have been observed in breeding plumage in a single group at the same time, although it is unknown if or how this is related to dominance or breeding status.<p>Both sexes moult in autumn after breeding, with males assuming an eclipse non-breeding plumage. They will moult again into nuptial plumage in winter or spring. Body feathers are replaced at both moults while wing and tail feathers are in spring only, though the latter may be replaced at any time if damaged or worn. The blue coloured plumage, particularly the ear-coverts, of the breeding males is highly iridescent due to the flattened and twisted surface of the barbules. The blue plumage also reflects ultraviolet light strongly, and so may be even more prominent to other fairywrens, whose colour vision extends into this part of the spectrum.<p>Vocal communication among red-winged fairywrens is used primarily for communication between birds in a social group and for advertising and defending a territory. They are able to distinguish different individuals on the basis of song alone, which is integral to the identification of group members and strangers. The basic, or "type one", song is a one to four second high-pitched reel consisting of 10–20 short elements per second; it is sung by both males and females, particularly when there is a dispute over territory boundaries. Singing occurs most frequently before and just after dawn. Foraging birds maintain contact with each other by soft, repeating see-see-see descending tones, while a loud, sharp tsit serves as an alarm call.

Taxonomía

The red-winged fairywren was described by ornithologist John Gould in 1837, who gave it the bird's specific name which is derived from the Latin term elegans 'elegant'. He noted its location as the eastern coast of Australia, but corrected his error after further collections by John Gilbert from south-western Australia. Amateur ornithologist Gregory Mathews described birds from the southern karri forests as subspecies warreni in 1916 on the basis of darker female plumage. However, others have not observed this subsequently and the current consensus is that no separate subspecies are recognized. In fact there is little variation in size or colour within the species between populations or individuals.<p>It is one of eleven species of the genus Malurus, commonly known as fairywrens, found in Australia and lowland New Guinea. Within the genus it belongs to a group of four very similar species known collectively as chestnut-shouldered fairywrens. The other three species are the lovely fairywren, the variegated fairywren, and the blue-breasted fairywren. Molecular study showed the blue-breasted fairywren to be the most closely related to the red-winged fairywren.<p>Like other fairywrens, the red-winged fairywren is unrelated to the true wrens. Initially, fairywrens were thought to be a member of the Old World flycatcher family, or the warbler family, Sylviidae, before being placed in the newly recognised Australasian wren family, Maluridae, in 1975. More recently, DNA analysis has shown the family to be related to the honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) and the pardalotes (Pardalotidae) in a large superfamily, Meliphagoidea.<p>Alternative names for the red-winged fairywren include red-winged blue-wren and red-winged wren.<p>In his 1982 monograph, ornithologist Richard Schodde proposed a northern origin for the chestnut-shouldered fairywren group due to the variety of forms in the north and their absence in the southeast of the continent. Ancestral birds spread south and colonised the southwest during a warm and wetter period around 2 million years ago at the end of the Pliocene or beginning of the Pleistocene. Subsequent cooler and drier conditions resulted in the loss of habitat and fragmentation of populations. South-western birds gave rise to what is now the red-winged fairywren, while those in the northwest of the continent became the variegated fairywren. Further warmer, humid conditions again allowed birds to spread southwards; this group, occupying central southern Australia east to the Eyre Peninsula, became the blue-breasted fairywren. Cooler climate then resulted in this being isolated as well and evolving into a separate species. Finally, after the end of the last glacial period 12,000–13,000 years ago, the northern variegated forms again spread southwards. This has resulted in the ranges of all three species overlapping.

Nombre científico

Malurus elegans

Autoridad

Gould, 1837

Orden

Passeriformes

Familia

Maluridae

Género

Malurus

Distribución y hábitat

The red-winged fairywren occurs in the wetter, southwest corner of Western Australia, from Moore River north of Perth south through to the Margaret River region and east to Albany. It is common in parts of its range, though there is some evidence of decline from draining of swampland. It lives in the understorey of karri and jarrah. Older forests appear to be less favourable habitats, while birds appear to be attracted to disturbed areas after logging. Fire also results in populations disappearing, returning after a period of two years. Forestry plantations of pine and eucalypts are generally unsuitable as they lack sufficient undergrowth.<p>Within the forest habitat, the red-winged fairywren prefers wetter gullies and riverside sword sedge. It borders the range of the variegated fairywren on the northern limit of its range, and the blue-breasted fairywren in the eastern limit, with those two species occupying dryer scrub while the red-winged fairywren is restricted to wetter forests. The lack of intermediate forms reinforces the status of all three taxa as separate species.<p>Sites identified by BirdLife International as being important for red-winged fairywren conservation are Araluen-Wungong, Jalbarragup, Mundaring-Kalamunda, North Dandalup, the Stirling Range, Two Peoples Bay and Mount Manypeaks.

Migración

Especie residente

Comportamiento

Patrón migratorio: Especie residente.

Conservación

Tendencia poblacional: en declive.

Tendencia poblacional

en declive