Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Common name for certain small, insectivorous Australian birds, incorporating fourteen members of the family Maluridae.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Notes on the status and behaviour of the purple-crowned fairy-wren Malurus coronatus in the Victoria River Downs area, Northern Territory.

    Victoria Plains tropical savanna 2008

  • The threatened purple-crowned fairy-wren (Malurus coronatus) has a major stronghold in riparian vegetation in this ecoregion, particularly along the Victoria River.

    Victoria Plains tropical savanna 2008

  • Vegetation change associated with pastoral impact led to decreases and local extinctions of some bird species, especially those associated with riparian areas, such as white-browed robin (Poecilodryas superciliosa) and purple-crowned fairy-wren.

    Victoria Plains tropical savanna 2008

  • The threatened purple-crowned fairy-wren (Malurus coronatus) has been lost from much of the Ord and Fitzroy River systems, mostly because of trampling and overgrazing of riparian vegetation, but persists in the ecoregion in less disturbed areas.

    Kimberly tropical savanna 2007

  • But as I puzzled over which male models were super, and why, and caught up on celebrities I'd never heard of, one thing seemed clear: when it came to men's fashion, the fairy-wren paradigm didn't hold.

    NYT > Home Page By HOLLAND COTTER 2011

  • Among another Australian species of cooperatively breeding birds, the superb fairy-wren, dominant males notice when their helpers are less than superb about paying their taxes.

    Signs of the Times 2009

  • Among another Australian species of cooperatively breeding birds, the superb fairy-wren, dominant males notice when their helpers are less than superb about paying their taxes.

    Signs of the Times 2009

  • That suggests, says Magrath, that, rather than being hard-wired, the fairy-wren needed to have heard the scrubwrens 'alarm call, and learnt that it meant danger.

    New Scientist - Online News 2008

  • Fairy and scrubwrens have very similar alarm calls - a high-pitched piping noise - so the fairy-wren may have automatically recognised the alarm call of the scrubwren.

    New Scientist - Online News 2008

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