Southern emu-wren

The southern emu-wren (Stipiturus malachurus) is a species of bird in the Australasian wren family, Maluridae. It is endemic to Australia. Its natural habitats are temperate forests, and Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation, and swamplands.

Southern emu-wren
Male in Tasmania
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Maluridae
Genus: Stipiturus
Species:
S. malachurus
Binomial name
Stipiturus malachurus
(Shaw, 1798)
Distribution map
Synonyms
  • Muscicapa malachura Shaw
  • Malurus palustris Veillot

Description

The adult male has rusty-brown upper parts with streaks of black, the crown more reddish and grey-brown wings. It has a sky-blue throat, upper chest and eyebrow. The tail is double the body length, and is composed of six filamentous feathers, the central two of which are longer than the lateral ones. The underparts are pale red-brown, paler on the belly. The bill is black and the feet and eyes are brown. The female is darker streaked and lacks the blue plumage and redder crown. Its bill is brown with a pale grey base.[2]

Distribution and habitat

Throughout its range, the southern emu-wren inhabits marshes, low heathland and dune areas.[3]

At least one subspecies is present near the site of the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex near Port Lincoln, on the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia.[4]

Taxonomy and systematics

Stipiturus malachurus hartogi: male (foreground) and female

The southern emu-wren is one of three species of the genus Stipiturus, commonly known as emu-wrens, found across southern and central Australia. It was first characterized by naturalist George Shaw in 1798 as Muscicapa malachura, after being collected in the Port Jackson (Sydney) district.[5] It was described as the "soft-tailed flycatcher", native name mur-re-a-nera when painted between 1788 and 1797 by Thomas Watling, one of a group known collectively as the Port Jackson Painter.[6] Another painting in the same series yielded the indigenous name mereangeree.[7] Notes on this latter drawing suggest an alternative name of emu- or cassowary titmouse, from its soft tail feathers.[8] In the first description and illustration of the bird by Major-General Thomas Davies, another Sydney region indigenous name merion binnion was reported, since the tail resembled the "cassowary (emu)" feathers.[9]

The skin of a male southern emu-wren somehow ended up in the collection of Coenraad Jacob Temminck, who believed it to be from Java. From there it was named by François Levaillant as the gauze-tailed warbler. This mistake was not picked up for another 55 years.[8] Veillot defined the genus Malurus and placed the southern emu-wren within it, naming it as Malurus palustris.[8]

The southern emu-wren derives its common name from its tail feathers, the loosely barbed nature of which resembles feathers of the emu, the irony being that the emu-wrens are among the smallest of Australian birds, while the emu is the largest.[8]

Subspecies

Up to eleven subspecies have been described,[10] with eight recognised as of 2022:[11][10]

References

  1. BirdLife International (2016). "Stipiturus malachurus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22703772A93936110. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22703772A93936110.en. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
  2. Rowley and Russell, p. 203.
  3. Rowley and Russell, p. 205.
  4. Leckie, Evelyn (28 May 2021). "Rocket launching proposals worry traditional owners, environmentalists, but company committed to holistic care of the land". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 30 May 2021.
  5. Rowley and Russell, p. 202.
  6. The Natural History Museum, London (2007). ""Soft-tailed Flycatcher", native name Mur-re-a-nera". First Fleet Artwork Collection. The Natural History Museum, London. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
  7. The Natural History Museum, London (2007). ""Soft-tailed Flycatcher", native name "Mereangeree"". First Fleet Artwork Collection. The Natural History Museum, London. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
  8. Hindwood, K.A. (1931). "Historical associations and early records of the Emu-wren". Emu. 31 (2): 99–110. doi:10.1071/mu931099.
  9. Davies, Thomas (6 February 1798). "Account of a New Species of Muscicapa, from New South Wales" . Transactions of the Linnean Society. Vol. 4. London (published 1798). pp. 240–2.
  10. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2017). "Lyrebirds, scrubbirds, bowerbirds & Australasian wrens". World Bird List Version 7.3. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  11. "What are Emu-wrens?". Conservation Council SA. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  12. Rowley and Russell, p. 204.
  13. Mount Lofty Ranges Southern Emu-Wren (PDF). Fact Sheet 4. Government of South Australia, Australian Government and others. 2012. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  14. Dayman, Isabel (18 March 2015). "Endangered species better protected as Watchalunga Nature Reserve established on SA Fleurieu Peninsula". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  15. "Stipiturus malachurus parimeda — Southern Emu-wren (Eyre Peninsula)". Department of Environment. 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2016.

Source

  • Rowley, Ian; Russell, Eleanor (1997). Bird Families of the World:Fairy-wrens and Grasswrens. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-854690-4.
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