This little blue bird sends flowers to the opposite sex all year round

The Malurus splendens is a small bird endemic to Australia, a member of the lovely fairy-wren family. Fairy-wrens are all small in size, and they were mistaken for wrens or warblers in the past. It was not until the late 20th century that ornithologists realized that they had nothing to do with the wrens and warblers of the Northern Hemisphere, but were birds that originated in the Southern Hemisphere, but were named wrens because of their similar appearance.

Brilliant Blue Fairywren | butupa / Wikimedia Commons

The scientific name of the fairy-wren family, Maluridae, comes from the Ancient Greek word, meaning a slender and delicate tail, which captures the main characteristics of the fairy-wrens very well. They all have beautiful, long and slender tails, which are often erected and shaken.

It is worth complaining that many Australian bird names are composed of single-word names of birds in the Northern Hemisphere, such as Cuckooshrike, Woodswallow, Quail-thrush, etc., which are very difficult to pronounce. The most outrageous one is Crested Shrike-tit, whose Chinese name is wēng, which is a combination of three bird names.

After reading this, do you still know the word for bird? | Tuao Ecology

Little blue star

The closest relative of the Blue Fairywren is the Malurus cyaneus. Both species are numerous and widely distributed. Because they both have striking blue feathers, local Chinese often call them "Blue Smurfs". A 2017 genetic study showed that the common ancestor of the Blue Fairywren and the Superb Fairywren diverged from other fairywrens 7 million years ago, and the two began to evolve independently 4 million years ago.

Superb Fairywren (male on left, female on right) | benjamin444 / Wikimedia Commons

The Brilliant Fairywren evolved in the southwest of Australia, while the Superb Fairywren evolved in the southeast of Australia. Because the southwest is drier, the Brilliant Fairywren is now more adapted to the vast arid areas of central Australia, becoming the most widely distributed member of the Fairywren. The Superb Fairywren is rooted in the more humid southeastern part of Australia, which is now the most populous region in Australia. It is loved by the majority of residents and has become the most popular Australian bird in the 2021 election vote.

The Brilliant Blue Fairywren, which is obviously more beautiful and has a brighter blue color, can't even make it into the top 50! This is unfair (fans are furious)! But this is inseparable from the fact that the Brilliant Blue Fairywren is not adapted to urban landscapes and the sparse population in its distribution area.

The Blue Fairywren is found in Australia's arid deserts. | Ron Knight / Wikimedia Commons

There are currently four subspecies of the Splendid Fairywren. M. s. splendens (Banded Fairywren) is found in the southwestern corner of Australia, M. s. melanotus (Black-backed Fairywren) is found in central Australia, M. s. callainus (Turqupise Fairywren) is found in the eastern interior of Australia, and M. s. emmottorum is found in southern Queensland.

The female Blue Fairywren has a much darker plumage | Wikimedia Commons

Although these subspecies do not look very different, they were once considered separate species because they were distributed too far apart and it was thought that there could be no reproductive exchanges between them. However, with more exploration of the Australian interior, it was discovered that the distribution of the brilliant blue fairy-wren was wider than expected, and in areas where the distribution overlapped, the subspecies would interbreed, and there was no reproductive isolation, so they were classified as a single species.

A romantic bird

The brilliant blue fairywren is a particularly romantic bird that has mastered a variety of love skills to please the opposite sex. The most classic performance is that the male bird will present flowers to the female bird. This is a traditional art of the fairywren genus. They will choose flowers of different colors according to their own feathers. For example, the magnificent fairywren will use the principle of complementary colors to use yellow petals to set off its blue feathers to make them more blue.

'Brilliant Blue' is not just a name | patrickkavanagh / Wikimedia Commons

The Brilliant Blue Fairywren will choose purple petals and hold them in its mouth, passing them to the female bird it likes, expressing its love in this way. The reason why it chooses purple petals may be to contrast with its blue feathers. The blue color of the Brilliant Blue Fairywren is so blue that it looks purple to human eyes; and birds can see ultraviolet light, so the blue feathers of the male bird are even more unimaginable in their eyes.

Interestingly, the Blue Fairywren does not only send flowers during the breeding season, nor does it mate after sending flowers. Sending flowers is a way for them to communicate and develop feelings, and they send flowers in all seasons of the year.

Male Blue Fairywrens adopt a similar plumage coloration to females during the non-breeding season | patrickkavanagh / Wikimedia Commons

In addition to sending flowers, other ways to please female birds include singing and dancing. Male birds will perform a lovely dance called the "seahorse dance", slowly rising and falling in the air, like the swimming trajectory of a seahorse, and while dancing, they will try their best to raise the feathers on their head and neck to show their blueness.

The love song of the brilliant blue fairywren is an exciting "game of death". When a bird of prey flies by and alarms sound from all around, the male bird will risk singing loudly, because at this time the female bird will stop all actions and listen attentively to the surroundings.

A Brilliant Fairywren raises its neck feathers | Nevil Lazarus / Wikimedia Commons

Complex and chaotic family life

The blue fairy-wren lives in small families, with several young birds living together in their own territory. Usually only the older males have blue feathers, while the young males and females are light brown. The young males were mistaken for females by early naturalists, who concluded that the blue fairy-wren is a polygynous system.

Later it was discovered that the Blue Fairywren is actually monogamous. Usually an older male and an older female are the parents, who stay together for many years and share the responsibility of raising chicks; while other young birds serve as helpers. Some of them are the children of the parents, and some are adopted from outside, helping the parents take care of the newborn babies during the breeding season. This model is called cooperative breeding. Cooperative breeding is relatively rare in birds in the Northern Hemisphere, but it is very common in Australian birds.

Brilliant Blue Fairywren | Tuao Ecology

Helpers are willing to take care of young birds, sometimes even those that are not related to them, which seems to be very selfless and generous. However, some ornithologists believe that this is a way for the helpers to improve their status in the family so that they can become the new head of the family and inherit the territory if something happens to the head of the family.

Other studies have found that helper birds are sometimes lazy and don't work hard. When they are lazy, they will be scolded by their parents. If they are seriously lazy, they will even be expelled from the family.

Even if the helpers are not lazy, their contribution does not increase the survival rate of the chicks. Their role is to reduce the burden on the parents, so that the parents can recover faster and start the next breeding. Sometimes the brilliant blue fairy-wren can breed again just a few weeks after the nest of chicks leaves the nest, and breed several nests a year.

Ornithologists have used genetic technology to discover that extramarital mating is very common among the blue-winged fairy-wrens. In some colonies, almost half of the offspring are not the biological children of the father. It turns out that both male and female birds, although they only have one social partner for life, will frequently "cheat", often running to the next door's territory to have sex before dawn, and some even have extramarital mating with helpers in their own family. Based on this special and complex situation, ornithologists call the "marriage system" of the blue-winged fairy-wrens socially monogamous, sexually promiscuous.

Male and female Brilliant Blue Fairywren | Alexandre Roux / Flickr

Despite their chaotic private lives, the family of the Blue Fairywren is very loving. They always go out together to look after each other when foraging, and hide in low bushes if they are in real danger. When bathing in a puddle, they are also orderly, taking turns to keep watch to ensure the safety of the family. When they are free, the Blue Fairywrens will huddle together on a horizontal branch to groom each other, and they will also exchange positions in the middle of the process, familiarizing themselves with each other, which is very cute.