A puzzling example of altruism in nature has been debunked with researchers showing that purple-crowned fairy wrens are in reality cunningly planning for their own future when they assist in raising ...

A team of biologists at Monash University, working with a colleague from Wageningen University, has found an explanation for why purple-crowned fairy wrens engage in cooperative breeding. In their ...

A study of purple-crowned fairy-wrens offers lessons for fire management along waterways in tropical savanna ecosystems. Exposure to hot and dry conditions can damage the DNA of nestling birds in ...

Collaborative research headed by biologists at Monash University has found that the apparently-altruistic efforts of purple-crowned fairy wrens are actually motivated by selfish interest. Fairy-wrens ...

I recently shared the disturbing story about how some desert birds are going to be roasted into local extinction within five years, thanks to accelerating climate change (more here). It almost goes ...

A new study led by Monash University scientists found DNA damage in endangered purple-crowned fairy wren nestlings exposed to hot and dry conditions during their first days of life. This result, ...

Male and female purple-crowned fairy-wrens live in dense vegetation along the creeks and rivers of the Kimberley and Top End in Australia. Each bird in the study had a unique combination of colored ...

A male fairy-wren's low pitch song indicates body size, a new study has shown. A male fairy-wren's low pitch song indicates body size, a new international study has shown. The study led by University ...

For the second year in a row, researchers have spotted purple-crowned fairywrens – small birds that dwell near creeks and rivers in northern Australia – reproducing outside their usual breeding season ...

Extreme heat waves can cause birds and mammals to die en masse. But it's more common for an animal to experience relatively mild heat stress that doesn't kill it. Our new findings suggest that ...

A male fairy-wren's low pitch song indicates body size, a new international study has shown. The study led by University of Melbourne researcher Dr Michelle Hall, is the first to show that the larger ...