Superb fairy-wrens are also known as blue wrens, they live as a family group.
Fairy-wrens have weak powers of flight but have long legs and spend most of their time on the ground or in shrubs, progressing in a series of hops as they gather food.
In families of superb fairy-wrens it seems that fathers get all the good looks. The dazzling blue feathers on the breeding male’s head, neck and tail. Somewhere nearby will be a group of small brown birds. These are the females, and ‘stay at home’ children of previous broods.
Stolen Sky
By Sioban Timmer
Fairy Wren upon a branch
I love to watch you skip and prance
Your colour stolen from the sky
A summer moment dancing by
Your partner with her feathers brown
Is no less pretty as she bounds
Perhaps because you make the pair
Of sky and earth together there
So Fairy Wren please stay a while
Lift my heart and make me smile
Though even once you hop away
A hint of summer sky will stay
Thanks Sioban. Gorgeous and informative too 🙂
It’s always great to read a poem which grabs you after you’ve read the first verse.
Thanks Siobhan, simple and rhythmic, with effective imagery and emotional content. Most enjoyable.
Oh birdy blue I see you dance
Across the morning near my fence
With all your little feathered friends
A special day indeed portends
From branch to branch your feathers shimmer
Inspiring poems from Sioban Timmer.
Your poem is beautiful Siobhan – a fairy wren could dance to it! It’s lovely to read rhythm and rhyme that capture a scene so perfectly. This is a poem to help children to love poetry. Thank you.
Beautiful poem. I love the way you explain their colours. I had never thought of that before. It has bothered me for a lifetime that the females are drab. Now I will change my perspective and will see them representing Mother Earth. Thank you.