Fairywrens, grasswrens and emu-wrens | Maluridae

Elfjes | Maluros

Small birds that carry the long tail upright and move by hopping through dense scrub, spinifex or reed; they seldom fly far. The male moults into a brightly coloured dress before the breeding season and loses it again afterwards. They live in groups: a pair with helpers, usually sons of earlier years, which guard the nest and feed the young. At the same time fidelity within the pair is as low in this family as in hardly any other group of birds — most of the young in a nest are fathered by another male, often a neighbour who visits before sunrise. A male carries a petal or a coloured bract in his bill as part of the display. The family also holds the grasswrens of the dry interior and the emu-wrens, whose tail consists of a handful of loose, filamentous shafts that let the light through.