The red-winged fairywren (Malurus elegans) is a species of passerine bird in the Australasian wren family, Maluridae.

Exhibiting a high degree of sexual dimorphism, the male adopts a brilliantly coloured breeding plumage, with an iridescent silvery-blue crown, ear coverts and upper back, red shoulders, contrasting with a black throat, grey-brown tail and wings and pale underparts.

[2] Bearing a narrow pointed bill adapted for probing and catching insects, the red-winged fairywren is primarily insectivorous; it forages and lives in the shelter of scrubby vegetation in temperate wetter forests dominated by karri trees, remaining close to cover to avoid predators.

The red-winged fairywren was described by ornithologist John Gould in 1837, who gave it the bird's specific name which is derived from the Latin term elegans 'elegant'.

[4] Amateur ornithologist Gregory Mathews described birds from the southern karri forests as subspecies warreni in 1916 on the basis of darker female plumage.

[11] More recently, DNA analysis has shown the family to be related to the honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) and the pardalotes (Pardalotidae) in a large superfamily, Meliphagoidea.

In his 1982 monograph, ornithologist Richard Schodde proposed a northern origin for the chestnut-shouldered fairywren group due to the variety of forms in the north and their absence in the southeast of the continent.

[6] Ancestral birds spread south and colonised the southwest during a warm and wetter period around 2 million years ago at the end of the Pliocene or beginning of the Pleistocene.

Further warmer, humid conditions again allowed birds to spread southwards; this group, occupying central southern Australia east to the Eyre Peninsula, became the blue-breasted fairywren.

Finally, after the end of the last glacial period 12,000–13,000 years ago, the northern variegated forms again spread southwards.

[4] Wider than it is deep, the bill is similar in shape to those of other birds that feed by probing for or by picking insects off of their environs.

[17] The male in breeding plumage has a silvery blue crown, ear coverts and upper back, a black throat and nape, bright red-brown shoulders, a long grey-brown tail and wings, and a greyish-white belly.

[21] The blue coloured plumage, particularly the ear-coverts, of the breeding males is highly iridescent due to the flattened and twisted surface of the barbules.

[22] The blue plumage also reflects ultraviolet light strongly, and so may be even more prominent to other fairywrens, whose colour vision extends into this part of the spectrum.

[25] The basic, or "type one", song is a one to four second high-pitched reel consisting of 10–20 short elements per second; it is sung by both males and females, particularly when there is a dispute over territory boundaries.

[27] Foraging birds maintain contact with each other by soft, repeating see-see-see descending tones, while a loud, sharp tsit serves as an alarm call.

[35] Sites identified by BirdLife International as being important for red-winged fairywren conservation are Araluen-Wungong, Jalbarragup, Mundaring-Kalamunda, North Dandalup, the Stirling Range, Two Peoples Bay and Mount Manypeaks.

[38] The red-winged fairywren is a cooperative breeding species, with a pair or small group of birds maintaining and defending a territory year-round.

[34] The area maintained is large enough to support the group in poor years or to accommodate new members after a good breeding season.

It is a round or domed structure made of loosely woven grasses and spider webs, with an entrance in one side.

[49] The female incubates the eggs alone for around an hour at a time, after which the male calls her and she will leave to forage urgently for 15–30 minutes before returning.

It will occasionally ascend trees up to 5 m (16 ft) above the ground in the understorey, particularly in the late summer and autumn as the flaking eucalypt bark is a rich source of arthropods.

They consumes a wide range of small creatures, mostly insects, eating ants and beetles year-round, and adding spiders, bugs and caterpillars to their diet during breeding season.

[56] Major nest predators include Australian magpies, butcherbirds, laughing kookaburras, currawongs, crows and ravens, and shrike-thrushes as well as introduced mammals such as the red fox, cat and black rat.

The fairywren lowers its head and tail, outstretches and quivers its wings and holds its beak open silently.