Rufous-crowned Emuwren

The rufous-crowned emu-wren is the smallest and most brightly coloured of the three emu-wren species. The adult male has reddish upperparts with faint streaks, with a prominently rufous crown and grey-brown wings. It has a bright sky blue throat, upper chest, lores and ear coverts. The lores and ear coverts, and chest border are streaked with black. The tail is double the body length, and is composed of six filamentous feathers, the central two of which are longer than the lateral ones. The underparts are buff. The bill, feet and eyes are brown. The female resembles the male but lacks much of the blue plumage and redder crown. Its throat is a yellow buff, and it has some blue-tinged streaked ear coverts. Its bill is pale brown.

The rufous-crowned emu-wren is found across the arid interior of northern central Australia, from the Simpson Desert in the southeast and Barkly Tableland in the northeast, across the centre to the Western Australian coast and the Pilbara in the northwest. There is also an isolated population found to the east in south-western Queensland bounded by Dajarra, Winton, Fermoy and Boulia. It lives in spinifex shrubland.