Recent research has reinstated the red-shouldered fairy-wrens that inhabit the east coast of Australia as a full species, the Variegated Fairy-wren - those from west of the Great Dividing Range and the rest of Australia to be known as Purple-backed Fairy-wrens. True Variegated males are brighter blue on the head than their western counterparts.

Variegated Fairy-wrens inhabit dense heath and other thick undergrowth east of the main range, from about Wide Bay in Qld south to about the Victorian border. There are no subspecies but there is a zone of intergration with inland birds between the Qld border and Wide Bay.