The dozen or so species of fairy-wrens are some of the most stunningly colorful and charming of Australian birds.   All are tiny birds with long tails that are often cocked, and the males usually have brilliant shimmering colors on the head (and sometimes the rest of the body).   Females are typically brownish.   Most species live in small social groups and have cooperative breeding (adult non-parents help feed chicks).   This is the variegated fairy-wren, a fairly common bird of scrubland east of the Great Dividing Range.   I took the photos in a park in the city of Wollongong, on the south coast of New South Wales.
        Since I took these photos, the inland form of the variegated fairy-wren has been split off into a separate species, the purple-backed fairy-wren.   In southeastern Australia, another very common species is the superb fairy-wren.

• Canon 40D, 500 mm IS lens plus 1.4X extender, fill-in flash (2009)