Cisticola, Fairy-wrens & other Woolamai smalls

If these birds had hung around together a little longer then I may have made a better fist of capturing their moment together. These Golden-headed cisticola and Super fairy-wren shared the same patch of coastal heath when I visited Cape Woolamai recently.

Golden-headed cisticola and Superb fairy-wren, Cape Woolamai

Superb fairy-wren

Superb fairy-wren (female)

Golden-headed cisticola

There are few clues to the correct pronunciation of the name cisticola! It is one of those bird names that has to be heard before an attempt should be made. Sean Dooley does an excellent job in his book "From Anoraks to Zitting Cisticola":

Nothing gives a beginner away more quickly than mispronouncing the names of birds. It shouldn’t matter, but it does, and when I hear an experienced old-timer pronounce ‘plover’ so that it rhymes with ‘clover’ (it should rhyme with ‘lover’), I can’t help but give a misplaced smirk of superiority.
So for the record, if you want to avoid the sniggers of other birders, cisticola should be pronounced ‘sis-tick-er-la’ with the last syllables running together so that it sounds as though you are saying you have tickled your sister, not as if it was the latest flavour of Coke. And certainly try and avoid, as one friend used to say, ‘cisticular’. Particularly with the Zitting before it; people will think you are suffering from a medical condition. 'Sean was a healthy young man until he went to Darwin and picked up Zitting Cisticulars. Now it hurts when he pees.'

In my mind this male Golden-headed cisticola appears distracted by the flight of his love...

A few more Woolamai "smalls"....

Willie wagtail, Cape Woolamai (A "Woolie wagtail" perhaps?)

White-fronted chat

The scene where these shots were taken. Cape Woolamai, Phillip Island. The cape is at the eastern  most point of the island. Here is the view looking west across the rest of the island.

Bird on!