The Fantail: The Cutest Forest Companion

Guest Blogger: Campaign Manager for the Fantail & Broadcaster, Kim Hill

Photo: Craig McKenzie

Such good company, the fantail! I realise it’s shamefully anthropomorphic, but they always make me feel as if they’re delighted to see me and have a chat, especially when I’m on my own in the bush.

Yes yes, I am aware that they’re just chasing the insects that get stirred up by my footsteps, but that doesn’t diminish their charm. Having a chat, having a feed, it’s all very sociable. Nothing wrong with self-interest if it gives others pleasure at the same time, I reckon. I’m sorry for the pain of the insects, of course, but it’s the great cycle of life….which is easy for me to say at the top of the food chain but never mind.

Plus, they seem utterly fearless: I’ve seen them flying between my horse’s legs with complete insouciance.The horse never seems to notice, perhaps thinking the fantail is an insect itself, a butterfly: they’re quite incorporeal, like some extra from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but at the same time robust and assertive and jolly.

And that tail! Such a bold accessory for such a small bird, and proportionately even larger than the more famous peacock’s tail, I would have thought. But it’s not showing off, the fantail. It’s more like a witty comment.

So the fantail gets points for chutzpah, which once again should carry it to victory ahead of its larger, more muscular or more earthbound avian rivals.