You can participate in fairywren research
Do you see fairywrens? We’re looking for citizen scientist partners across Australia to help us collect observations of fairywrens and their plumages. Whether you're a serious twitcher or enjoy seeing fairywrens in your garden, your observations help!
When you see fairywrens, submit an eBird checklist and let us know how many individuals of each plumage type you saw in the species comments, separating codes with a space:
b = bright male, i = intermediate male, d = dull male, f = female, j = juvenile, u = unknown dull | Example: 3f 1d 1i 2b
Heard only? Include those individuals in your species total as you normally would. Only submit plumage type observations for the individuals you see.
Visit our Participate page for more instructions on how to take part. For a printable version of the participation instructions click here.
Watch the video:
About the Fairywren Project
From vibrant colors and enchanting displays to whirling songs and musical calls, Australia's fairywrens have long fascinated scientists and bird watchers alike. Years of research have revealed much about these intriguing creatures, but many questions still remain. The Fairywren Project seeks to bring these admirers together under one common goal to better understand some of Australia's most celebrated birds.
By combining the knowledge obtained from past and current studies of individual populations with observations from citizen scientists across Australia, we hope to better understand how these species vary across their range and what this variation can tell us about why fairywrens are so diverse and how they might change in the future. Learn more about the research.
Have a question? We want to hear from you! You are the expert on the birds you see daily and you could be seeing behaviors or processes that scientists have never seen before. Visit our About the Research page to see what questions other citizen scientists have thought up so far. Contact us via email (fairywrenproject@gmail.com) with your ideas.
Late 2023 Update:
You've submitted over 20,000 eBird checklists! We've pooled all of your sightings from August 2018-August 2023 and are extremely pleased to report that we are now up to 1409 participants and 20,641 checklists. Thank you all very much for your effort and contributions to the project, every single sighting helps!
Meet the fairywrens
Photos by Laurie Ross: Tracks Birding and Photography Tours
Hybrid Fairywrens
Learn about our work with photographers and citizen scientists to document rare instances of hybridisation events fairywren species.
Potential Red-backed x Superb Fairywren hybrid male
Potential White-winged x Superb Fairywren hybrid male
Partners
