Winter 2025, South West WA (#11 in series: not rare, but rarely seen)

 

 

You are looking at a very shy, very small, very “busy”, mostly-insectivorous and allegedly “drab” bird.

S/he is a West Australian version of Sericornis frontalis – the white-browed scrubwren.

White-browed scrubwrens are a single species, but with many regional variations.

The alleged number of its subspecies varies hugely – from two through to ten.

Many human Australians have heard its (surprisingly loud) call, but surprisingly few have ever enjoyed a clear, full-frontal view of a white-browed scrubwren.

I have several (brief) times had a close and clear view, but until 4.13 pm on 16 August 2025 I had never enjoyed a relatively-prolonged and intimate encounter with a member of this species, in “flaunting” mode.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would be less than surprised if this kind of close encounter should prove a “just once in my lifetime” event.

In my experience, whenever one is lucky enough to see a white-browed scrubwren, that moment is fleeting – almost instantly, it “disappears” into the dense vegetation, from which this bird never strays far.

A closer view of an allegedly “drab” little bird often reveals that it is nowhere near as drab as had been alleged, nor as drab as it had seemed when viewed only fleetingly, and from a greater distance.

I love the way tiny birds’ apparent shape, size and colour can shift, radically – from moment to moment, as the bird flits… from one season to another… and whenever light and water transform the appearance of its plumage.

My closest-ever encounter with this species is documented below. The pictured individual was hunting, not flaunting.