The Spotted Pardalote 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.

All Pardalote

Pardalote

Pardalotes or peep-wrens are a family, Pardalotidae, of very small, brightly coloured birds native to Australia, with short tails, strong legs, and stubby blunt beaks. This family is composed of four species in one genus, Pardalotus, and several subspecies. The name derives from a Greek word...

s have spots and all nest in tunnels at least sometimes; the Spotted Pardalote has the most conspicuous spots and (like the Red-browed Pardalote

Red-browed Pardalote

The Red-browed Pardalote occupies the northern two-thirds of Australia. It is a fraction larger than the Forty-spotted Pardalote, at 10 to 12 cm, and is the least conspicuously coloured, being paler and combining the spotted skull-cap of the Spotted Pardalote with the striped wings of the Striated...

) 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.

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

External links

• Spotted Pardalote videos, photos & sounds on the Internet Bird Collection.