see text The Australasian wrens are a family, Maluridae, of small, insectivorous passerine birds endemic to Australia and New Guinea.

The family comprises 32 species (including sixteen fairywrens, three emu-wrens, and thirteen grasswrens) in six genera.

In the late 1960s, morphological studies began to suggest that the Australo-Papuan fairywrens, the grasswrens, emu-wrens and two monotypic wren-like genera from New Guinea were related and, following Charles Sibley's pioneering work on egg-white proteins in the mid-1970s, Australian researchers adopted the family name Maluridae in 1975.

[3][4] Their obvious similarity to the wrens of Europe and America is not genetic, but simply the consequence of convergent evolution between more-or-less unrelated species that share the same ecological niche.

This, termed "Type II Vocalization," is song-like and used when confronted by calling butcherbirds, and sometimes other predatory birds.