The rufous-crowned emu-wren (''Stipiturus ruficeps'') is a species of bird in the

Australasian wren The Australasian wrens are a family, Maluridae, of small, insectivorous passerine birds endemic to Australia and New Guinea. While commonly known as wrens, they are unrelated to the true wrens. The family comprises 32 species (including sixteen ...

family, Maluridae. It is endemic to Australia.

Taxonomy and systematics

The rufous-crowned emu-wren is one of three species of the genus '' Stipiturus'', commonly known as emu-wrens, found across southern and central Australia. It was first described in 1899 by Archibald James Campbell, more than a century after its relative the southern emu-wren. Its species name is derived from the Latin words ''rufus'' "red" and ''caput'' "head". No subspecies are recognised, although birds from Western Australia may have redder plumage, and females more blue on the face and lores. It has been considered a subspecies of both the southern and mallee emu-wrens in the past.Rowley and Russell, p. 211. The common name of the genus is derived from the resemblance of their tails to the feathers of an emu.

Description

The rufous-crowned emu-wren is the smallest and most brightly coloured of the three emu-wren species.Rowley and Russell, plate 5. The adult male has reddish upperparts with faint streaks, with a prominently rufous crown and grey-brown wings. It has a bright sky blue throat, upper chest, lores and ear coverts. The lores and ear coverts, and chest border are streaked with black. The tail is double the body length, and is composed of six filamentous feathers, the central two of which are longer than the lateral ones. The underparts are buff. The bill, feet and eyes are brown. The female resembles the male but lacks much of the blue plumage and redder crown. Its throat is a yellow buff, and it has some blue-tinged streaked ear coverts. Its bill is pale brown.Rowley and Russell, p. 210.

Distribution and habitat

The rufous-crowned emu-wren is found across the arid interior of northern central Australia, from the Simpson Desert in the southeast and

Barkly Tableland The Barkly Tableland is a rolling plain of grassland in Australia. It runs from the eastern part of the Northern Territory into western Queensland. It is one of the five regions in the Northern Territory and covers , 21% of the Northern Terr ...

in the northeast, across the centre to the Western Australian coast and the Pilbara in the northwest. There is also an isolated population found to the east in south-western Queensland bounded by

Dajarra Dajarra is a town and a locality in the Shire of Cloncurry, Queensland, Australia. In the , Dajarra had a population of 191 people; 60.3% of the population are Indigenous. Geography Dajarra is in North West Queensland near the border with the ...

, Winton, Fermoy and Boulia. It lives in spinifex shrubland.

References

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* {{Taxonbar, from=Q3121388 rufous-crowned emu-wren Endemic birds of Australia rufous-crowned emu-wren Taxonomy articles created by Polbot