Blue-breasted Fairy-wren (2/13)

PASSERIFORMES: Maluridae

Malurus pulcherrimus  

This male Blue-breasted Fairy-wren has found a fat juicy moth. The conversion of such a large moth to a meal seems to me like quite an ambitious exercise. I am impressed.

For minutes, he bashes it savagely against fallen sticks and twigs removing its wings, legs and life, and eating the edible pieces of the animal that come adrift.

Every now and then he puts down the moth and takes a short break. It's a hot day and earning one's living like this is hard work.

I hadn't noticed a second observer to this spectacle, and I don't think the fairy-wren had either.

On one of the occasions when the little bird took a break, a Western Yellow Robin flew in and took off with the moth's body. The fairy-wren didn't notice the brazen body-snatching and started an extensive but unsuccessful search for the moth it had put down.

So this account is a story with an unhappy ending for a Blue-breasted Fairy-wren, not to mention a fat moth, but a rewarding ending for a crafty Western Yellow Robber, I mean Robin, not to mention a lucky bird-watcher.