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Male Southern Emu-wren, Stipiturus malachurus intermedius, note the six distinctive tail feathers
(Joanne Cutten)
| Quick Fact File | | | | | | |  | Genus — Stipiturus (Aves: Maluridae) means “stem-tail” | | Small, mainly insectivorous, birds | | Three species, only found in Australia | | Body mass — 5–8g | | Only six tail feathers, which have a reduced, ‘skeletonised’ structure | | Typical calls — high-pitched trills | | Alarm calls — louder and lower-pitched than typical call | | Difficult to observe because of their secretive and cryptic nature |
| | About Emu-wrens | | | | | | Emu-wrens are small insectivorous birds that are found only in Australia. They get their name from their distinctive tails that have six long, emu-like feathers. Emu-wrens have short, rounded wings and are poor fliers. They tend to hop and scramble through their habitat, which is characterised by dense, low vegetation. Their typical calls consist of very high-pitched trills, with louder low-pitched calls sounded in alarm. Emu-wrens are secretive and cryptic, so can be difficult to observe unless you have good vision and acute hearing. There are three species of emu-wrens, each displaying differences in colouration, tail length and habitat preference:
| Rufous-crowned Emu-wren Stipiturus ruficeps — widespread across arid spinifex-clad regions of central and central-western Australia | | Mallee Emu-wren S. mallee — local distribution in mallee-heath areas of south-eastern South Australia and north-western Victoria | | Southern Emu-wren S. malachurus — coastal regions of southern Australia in a range of vegetation types such as wet- and dry-heath, sedgeland, tussock grassland and shrubland<top> |
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