Red-backed Wrens fairy flitters

Red-backed Fairy-wrens (Malurus melanocephalus) sometimes show up in excited groups, teasing the observer/photographer with the prospect of five or six glowing males caught in focus showing off to similar numbers of females.

No such picture emerges. The small birds flash through scruffy, scrubby tangles of weeds, fallen trees, bladey grass, sedge and scleria. Seldom does one - let alone five or six - pause in clear view. 

Even when one male does come to a brief halt on a sunny day there's the maddening problem of the gorgeous black sheen reflecting so much light that much feather detail is lost.

But on an overcast day the matt black can make a bird look drab.

Then there's the eyes, so dark they are often indistinguishable within the black mass of the head. But one must keep trying ...
Click pix to enlarge