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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