Thesouthern emu-wren (Stipiturus malachurus) is a species of bird in theAustralasian wren family, Maluridae. It isendemic to Australia. Its naturalhabitats are temperateforests, and Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation, andswamplands.
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]
Stipiturus malachurus hartogi: male (foreground) and female
The southern emu-wren is one of three species of the genusStipiturus, commonly known as emu-wrens, found across southern and central Australia. It was first characterized by naturalistGeorge Shaw in 1798 asMuscicapa malachura, after being collected in the Port Jackson (Sydney) district.[5] It was described as the "soft-tailed flycatcher", native namemur-re-a-nera when painted between 1788 and 1797 byThomas Watling, one of a group known collectively as thePort Jackson Painter.[6] Another painting in the same series yielded the indigenous namemereangeree.[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-GeneralThomas Davies, another Sydney region indigenous namemerion 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 ofCoenraad Jacob Temminck, who believed it to be from Java. From there it was named byFrançois Levaillant as the gauze-tailed warbler. This mistake was not picked up for another 55 years.[8] Vieillot defined the genusMalurus and placed the southern emu-wren within it, naming it asMalurus palustris.[8]
The southern emu-wren derives its common name from its tail feathers, the loosely barbed nature of which resembles feathers of theemu, the irony being that the emu-wrens are among the smallest of Australian birds, while the emu is the largest.[8]
S. m. parimeda -(Schodde &Weatherly, 1981): Found on the southern tip of theEyre Peninsula.[12] This subspecies is distinguishable from others by its significantly paler plumage.[15]
