Striated Pardalote

Description:

100 - 120 mm in length. Male and female are similar, in appearance, although the northern female has a fawn scalloped crown. A black crown, with or without white streaks. Grey-brown back, rufous or yellow on rump. Black wings that have a small red or yellow spot (photo 1 & 4) at shoulder tip; outer flight feathers with broad or narrow white stripe; inner flight feathers are edged rufous or white. Black tail with white tip. A brow-stripe, which is rich yellow to white, over the eye; black stripe through the eye over cheeks, plain or flecked grey-white. Underparts all cream-white, with a yellow line down centre throat, forking over sides of breast. Eye tan-grey. Black bill. Dusky brown feet.

Habitat:

My backyard.

Notes:

Pretty little thing. It's short tail makes it look quite dumpy (photo 3) Is the largest of the small pardalotes and the most widespread and nomadic. Covers almost all of mainland Australia and Tasmania. This little bloke popped in for a visit (after some time in each other's company, I was able to scratch, or reach for my drink, without this bird flying off) but I have seen them throughout open eucalypt country. Also follow river gum galleries, along watercourses. Northern Striated Pardalote are more sedentary. They disperse locally after breeding but don't wander far. The southern flocks often move north, inland and to lower altitudes, in autumn and winter. Loose flocks of 100 or more are formed, as they travel. A lot of the Tassie S. P. will cross Bass Strait, to winter on the Australian mainland, as far north as southeastern Queensland. Oh, wow. I wonder if this little bloke has travelled that far and I have gotten to see it? Wish it could talk! Groups travel quickly from clump to clump of trees, flying high and bullet-like. While searching for food, these birds have almost a mouse-like appearance, as they creep or run in amongst the crowns and outer foliage of trees. Lerps; bugs; thrips, to name a few, make up the varied diet, of the Striated Pardalote. A soft and frequent contact trill is made, while foraging. From a high, bare, vantage perch, the male will announce the breeding season (this is between June and January.) with loud, punctuated chip songs. The flocks will then return and break off into pairs, or groups of three to six, to nest in their customary spots. These nesting places may be stumps, tree hollows or burrows in the ground.(( Now, this next part I don't understand, so if some-one could please explain it, I will very much appreciate it = Central pair? works the nest (cup-shaped domed or partly domed; made from rootlets, grass and bark fibre and sometimes lined with feathers); incubates the eggs (three to five oval, white eggs, about 19 x 15 mm) and feeds the young. May be helped by additional members of their groups. Are some of these helpers non-breeders?)) Striated Pardalote will often cluster around the nest entrance and display wing-waving. Now, if I had taken the time to read that before, then I would have known what was going on in photo 2 (2/7/19). To take advantage of dry ground, northern black-headed populations begin breeding earlier. Striated Pardalote races are distinct species but will cross-breed and intergrade, wherever they meet. Voice:- Call = repeated soft trills, in contact; soft cheeoo; pee-ew, pee-ew. Song = loud, sharp, stuttered chips, which run together in two to four syllables, on same pitch, repeated in rapid- fire bursts = chip-chip; pik-pik; pik-it-up; wi-di-dup; wi-di-di-dup. There is much variation in their dialect, even in local populations. Striated Pardalotes may also be called:- Eastern Striated Pardalote; Yellow-tipped Pardalote; Black-headed Pardalote; Red-tipped Pardalote. They are Family Pardalotidae. Reference:- Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds.