The Brave Willy Wagtails

Of Australian small fantail birds surely the best known
The brave willy wagtails have ways of their own
White unders and head and wings and tail dark
And over their eyebrows a long thin white feathered mark

Their long dark tails ever switching to and fro
Said as a means for flushing flies this well may be so
The female lay brown dotted white eggs of two sometimes three
On neat cup nest of bark felted with cobwebs on low branch of tree

Aggressive for their size in defense of their territory
They are quite amazing for their bravery
They mob magpies and crows and birds of prey
And somehow from their territory manage to drive them away

Sometimes they sing at night they have a scratchy song
Once seen and once heard them you never again get wrong
Of human kind little birds that are never shy
They never seem nervous with a person nearby

Known and familiar birds Australia wide
Of town parks and gardens and of the countryside
To be brave and fearless in their ways they are known
These cheeky little birds with a charm of their own.