Spotted Pardalote

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Spotted Pardalote
Male with nesting material, Tasmania, Australia
Female with nesting material, Tasmania, Australia
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Pardalotidae
Genus: Pardalotus
Species: P. punctatus
Binomial name
Pardalotus punctatus
(Shaw & Nodder, 1792)
The approximate distribution of the Spotted Pardalote

The Spotted Pardalote (Pardalotus punctatus) is one of the smallest of all Australian birds at 8 to 10 cm in length, and one of the most colourful; it is sometimes known as the Diamondbird. Although moderately common in all of the reasonably fertile parts of Australia (the east coast, the south-east, and the south-west corner) it is seldom seen closely enough to enable identification. [citation needed] A distinctive subspecies, the Yellow-rumped Pardalote (race xanthopygus), is found in drier inland regions of southern Australia, particularly in semi-arid Mallee woodlands.

Nesting

All pardalotes have spots and all nest in tunnels at least sometimes; the Spotted Pardalote has the most conspicuous spots and (like the Red-browed Pardalote) always nests in tunnels. Pairs make soft, whistling wheet-wheet calls to one another throughout the day, which carry for quite a distance. One of the difficulties in locating a pardalote is that the contact call is in fact two calls: an initial call and an almost instant response, and thus can come from two different directions.

Numbers

Spotted Pardalote numbers appear to be declining, especially in urban areas,[2] but the species in not considered endangered at this time.[1]

Gallery

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 BirdLife International (2012). "Pardalotus punctatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013. 
  2. ↑ "Small insect-eating birds". Birds in Backyards. 9 November 2009. Retrieved 9 August 2011. 

External links

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