The superb fairy-wren is a picky bird. When other fairy-wrens are in trouble, it goes to help those it knows best - and turns its back on strangers.
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That's the conclusion of work done at the Australian National University.
The researchers played a trick on the bird. They broadcast distress calls to see which ones would go to help the fairy-wren which seemed to be in difficulty.
"We found superb fairy-wrens are careful about who they aid," Professor Robert Magrath from the ANU Research School of Biology said.
"They'll risk life and limb for birds from the same breeding group, but are more careful when helping casual acquaintances.
"As for strangers, amazingly, they completely ignored the cries for help."
Fairy-wrens do have friends and also acquaintances.
"We found the wrens, like hunter-gatherers, have three distinct types of relations - those from the same breeding group, familiar individuals from the same community and unfamiliar birds from the wider population," researcher Ettore Camerlenghi said.
The research results have been published in the learned journal, Botany.
The fairy-wren has been badly hit by global warming.
An earlier study involved counting birds at the National Botanic Gardens. Numbers were falling.
Chicks in their nests - nestlings - found it harder to survive in the drought which ended three years ago. "They are shrivelled like raisins," Professor Andrew Cockburn said at the time.
"Things are going wrong, suggesting that fairy-wrens are a 'canary in the coal mine' for the effects of climate change," Professor Cockburn said.
It's not just the superb fairy-wren that is being hit. Plants are, too. "Our results suggest that our native fauna may already be experiencing an apocalyptic catastrophe, without even considering bushfires."
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Steve Evans
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
