Howard Loosemore, alongside a few talented photographer friends, spent 15 years capturing every Australian fairywren species and plumage in vivid detail that’s been published in a new book about the small and colourful lives of fairywrens

Lovely fairywren

The lovely fairywren is endemic to the Cape York peninsula in Australia. Photograph: Howard Loosemore

Red-backed fairywren male in moulting plumage

Fairywrens feed mainly on insects and other small invertebrates, which they glean from foliage, bark and the ground. They may also eat small amounts of seeds and fruit, particularly when insect prey is scarce. Photograph: Michael Chay

Purple-crowned fairywren male in nuptial plumage

‘In late 2022, I was searching for purple-crowned fairywrens near Fitzroy Crossing. In pre-wet season temperatures above 40C, I dug a small waterhole in the dry creek bed near a family of purple-crowned fairywrens and replenished it from a jerrycan, hoping the birds would discover it.…