# Help ID this bird please **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 6, 2020, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-bird-please/846011 "2020-01-06T02:59:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-bird-please/846011/1 "2020-01-06T02:59:16Z")
Link: [https://s3.amazonaws.com/gs-geo-images/dfb9a210-4033-4d9b-8b25-87cf25308ee7.png](https://s3.amazonaws.com/gs-geo-images/dfb9a210-4033-4d9b-8b25-87cf25308ee7.png) Any help appreciated, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-bird-please/846011/2 "2020-01-06T03:39:22Z")
Male varigated fairy wren. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-bird-please/846011/3 "2020-01-06T04:14:58Z")
Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![mjmlabs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mjmlabs/32/69_2.png) [@mjmlabs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjmlabs)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-bird-please/846011/4 "2020-01-06T12:19:46Z")
…and THAT is what makes this place awesome. Sent from my SM-S727VL using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2020, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-bird-please/846011/5 "2020-01-07T16:53:48Z")
I knew it was some kind of wren because of that upwards-pointing tail. He’s a gorgeous fellow! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2020, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-bird-please/846011/6 "2020-01-07T17:00:21Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > I knew it was some kind of wren because of that upwards-pointing tail. > > He’s a gorgeous fellow! The Australian Fairy Wrens (Maluridae) are not closely related to the wrens of the rest of the world (Troglodytidae). The latter occur mainly in the Americas, with one species reaching Eurasia. “Wren,” like “warbler,” “flycatcher,” and “robin,” has no taxonomic significance and has been applied to unrelated species all over the world. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2020, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-bird-please/846011/7 "2020-01-07T22:14:20Z")
If you know how to google-search for similar images you won’t even need the Dope. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-bird-please/846011/8 "2020-01-08T05:07:27Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > If you know how to google-search for similar images you won’t even need the Dope. Yes you do, or at least you need to run it by an expert. I just used Google to search for “visually similar images” and of the first 30 images, only two were clearly indicated as being male Variegated Fairy-wrens. The other images included other species of fairy-wren, swallows, chickadees, and a Marsh Wren. There are five species of fairy-wren in which the males are virtually identical to the Variegated, with only subtle differences. In fact, I’m not absolutely sure the photo in the OP isn’t one of the other species, due to possible variation in the lighting. There are four other fairy-wrens that are also similar but lack the red patch above the wing. An image search is going to turn up all of these. There’s also a problem in that many of the photos of birds turned up by a Google search are misidentified or mislabeled. You can’t really reliably identify photos of birds just by Googling. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-bird-please/846011/9 "2020-01-08T05:23:40Z")
[Meet the Fairywrens.](https://fairywrenproject.org/meet-the-fairywrens/) Note in particular the Purple-backed, Variegated, Lovely, Blue-breasted, and Red-winged males. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-bird-please/846011/10 "2020-01-08T16:49:09Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Yes you do, or at least you need to run it by an expert. I just used Google to search for “visually similar images” and of the first 30 images, only two were clearly indicated as being male Variegated Fairy-wrens. The other images included other species of fairy-wren, swallows, chickadees, and a Marsh Wren. > > \ > > There’s also a problem in that many of the photos of birds turned up by a Google search are misidentified or mislabeled. You can’t really reliably identify photos of birds just by Googling. Thanks Colibri, I actually did try Googling visually similar images first but was unhappy with the results. I knew I could get better results here. Also thanks for the Fairy Wren link. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-bird-please/846011/11 "2020-01-08T17:48:18Z")
His name is Fred. He’s a little over a year old and enjoys flying, eating seeds and insects and hopes to be Alpha bird very soon. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2020, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-bird-please/846011/12 "2020-01-09T07:19:45Z")
> [@swampspruce](#): > > His name is Fred. He’s a little over a year old and enjoys flying, eating seeds and insects and hopes to be Alpha bird very soon. 😃 Stalking him on Feathr is kind of disturbing, dude… ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2020, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-bird-please/846011/13 "2020-01-09T20:08:18Z")
Hey, I’m a tree. he comes to me… ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2020, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-bird-please/846011/14 "2020-01-09T20:36:32Z")
The variegated fairywren, also known as Dronetech model # VFW-877, is generally deployed for surveillance and intelligence-gathering in Eastern Australia. For more info, check out [www.reddit.com/r/birdsarentreal](http://www.reddit.com/r/birdsarentreal) 😉