Survival of fairywrens from one season to the next is generally high for such small birds, and the Red-winged Fairywren has the highest rate of all—with 78% of breeding males and 77% of breeding females surviving from year to year.
Like other fairywrens, male Red-winged Fairywrens have been observed carrying brightly coloured petals to display to females as part of a courtship ritual.
Vocal communication among Red-winged Fairywrens is used primarily for communication between birds in a social group and for advertising and defending a territory.
Molecular study showed the Blue-breasted Fairywren to be the most closely related to the Red-winged Fairywren.
Petals are displayed and presented to a female in the male fairywren's own or another territory.
Observed in this species, the 'Wing-fluttering' display is seen in several situations: females responding, and presumably acquiescing, to male courtship displays, juveniles while begging for food, by helpers to older birds, and immature males to senior ones.
Groups range from two to nine members in size with an average of four birds, the largest for any fairywren studied to date.
Female helpers are much more common in this species than the other species intensively studied, the Superb Fairywren (M.
Like other fairywrens, the Red-winged Fairywren is notable for its marked sexual dimorphism, males adopting a highly visible breeding plumage of brilliant iridescent blue and chestnut contrasting with black and grey-brown.
In fact there is little variation in size or colour within the species between populations or individuals.
Non-breeding males, females and juveniles are predominantly grey-brown in colour, though males may retain traces of blue and black plumage.
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.
