15-05-2025
Superb Fairy-wren: why it's our favourite of Australia's 'feathered jewels'
One hundred years ago, Harry Wolstenholme, son of the suffragette Maybanke Anderson, was an avid birdwatcher who did most of his watching in his garden in the northern Sydney suburb of Wahroonga. Sometimes, he backyard-birded alone; sometimes in company with birding legends of the day such as Keith Hindwood, Alec Chisholm, and Norman Chaffer. They not only admired Wahroonga's birdlife; they meticulously recorded it and published their observations in the Emu. A glance through early issues of that journal reveals numerous articles on urban birds. One, by Wolstenholme in 1922, was a bird list for his suburb, with annotations combining affectionate appreciations with astute observations on each species. Superb Fairy-wrens (which he called Blue Wren-Warblers) he found especially charming, delighting in the 'bright warblings of these lovely little birds' that could 'be heard in every garden as they hop and flit about among the small plants and creepers'. Wolstenholme's own garden was an avian haven, arranged to encourage the birds to interact with him. To promote that process, he fed them, and, like others at the time, he had no compunctions about acknowledging the fact. Writing in the Emu in 1929, he explained how he fostered friendship with Superb Fairy-wrens: 'These little fellows, like many of the garden birds, are very fond of cheese. While writing these notes on the verandah I have had to stop now and then to throw morsels to a pair of birds that came close below me in expectation of getting some.' Wolstenholme not only fed his avian friends; he encouraged them to perch on his fingers as they did so. Quite a few obliged. His 1929 Emu article included a photograph of a Grey Shrike-thrush eating from his hand. He even fed a Lewin's Honeyeater by holding sugared water in his cupped palm while the bird perched on his fingers to lap up the sweet liquid. This was hands-on birding.
