In 2008, we set out to go to the western-most point of Australia, but about lunch time we stopped before we would have headed north and watched a black White-winged Wren. We had long and good looks and it was definitely black – no trick of light on blue. We spent so much time there that we had to go back to Hamelin Bay and didn’t make the western-most point.
If I remember correctly, Alan Morris said we would have seen a Melanistic form of the mainland form.
This might be of interest:
prumlab.yale.edu/sites/default/files/driskell_et_al._2010.pdf
Peter and Bev Morgan
The conservation battle is never finally won; the development battle is.
eiπ + 1 = 0
> On 25 Sep 2017, at 10:01 am, Stephen Ambrose < stephen@ambecol.com.au> wrote:
>
> Hi Chris,
>
> Schodde & Mason (1999) state in relation to M. l. leucopterus:
>
> “There are occasional anecdotal reports of the ‘black’ form or of blue males
> with black feathering on the Australian mainland, particularly on Peron
> Peninsula opposite Dirk Hartog Island and on Eighty-Mile Beach, WA (e.g.
> Collins 1995), but their significance cannot be evaluated in the absence of
> corroborative material; because of reflectance, the blue of the plumage in
> mainland M. l. leuconotus may appear black in some lights.”
>
> Reference:
>
> Schodde, R. and Mason, I.J. (1999). The Directory of Australian Birds:
> Passerines. 851 pp. (CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood).
>
> Kind regards,
> Stephen
>
> Stephen Ambrose
> Ryde NSW
>
>
> —–Original Message—–
> From: Birding-Aus [
