In November 2021, 200 wren enthusiasts got involved in the Superb City Wrenfest – a two week festival to celebrate Superb Fairy-wrens, increase people’s connection with these iconic and important birds in the City and seek citizen scientists’ assistance to track the bird’s movements over time.
The Wrenfest kicked off on Monday 15 November 2021 with a Welcome Webinar, featuring online talks from bird experts and a live Q&A with the Superb City Wrens project team.
Local residents had the opportunity to attend ten guided morning bird surveys around the Trin-Warren Tam-boore Wetland at Royal Park, getting familiar with Superb Fairy-wrens, and learning how to undertake a standardised ’2 hectare, 20 minute’ bird survey and how identify coloured bands on the bird’s legs.
City of Melbourne Park Rangers helped families get to know birds better with engaging kid-friendly activities. Kids learned about what kinds of foods birds eat, why Superb Fairy-wrens need dense vegetation, and the types of threats that Superb Fairy-wrens and other small birds are faced with in our City.
Photography enthusiasts had a chance to learn tips and tricks for effective and ethical bird photography from professional photographer Ewen Bell through an online ‘Bird Photography 101’ workshop and in-person ‘Wrens and Friends’ photography walk at Royal Park.
Excitingly, licensed experts from BirdLife Australia fitted coloured leg bands on 13 local Superb Fairy-wrens and a range of other small birds in Royal Park, to help keep track of how individual birds are moving around the landscape.
With lots of citizen scientists now more familiar with how to identify and record sightings of Superb Fairy-wrens through participating in the Wrenfest, the Superb City Wrens project team are seeking long-term data collection by citizen scientists to help us find out more about the movement patterns of these birds over time.