Bird of the Week: Pardelotes

First, a caveat: Pardelotes are very small, very fast, and don’t sit still. As a result, I have never seen one long enough to either get a photograph, or identify which species of Pardelote hangs around Bunjaree Cottages.

However, Pardelotes are among the many species of small birds which frequent the bush around Bunjaree Cottages. They pass through in flocks, sweeping between different locations on the site in a group, feeding, chirping, and moving on.

Spotted Pardelote - Image: Wikimedia

These birds are tiny – at 8cm to 10cm, they’re not much smaller than your hand, and are definitely smaller than some of Australia’s biggest moths! They have a quite musical call – Birds in Backyards has calls recorded here for the Spotted Pardelote and here for the Striated Pardelote, and since you’re more likely to hear them than see them, it’s worth listening to.

A lot of people also mistake female Pardelotes for scrub wrens, because their grey-and-olive plumage and small size makes them look a little wren-like.