37 Tune Your Ear - Pardalotes
About this episode
Pardalotes are tiny birds with calls that carry through the bush. This Tune Your Ear episode helps you learn the calls of Australia’s pardalotes, including Forty-spotted Pardalote, Red-browed Pardalote, Striated Pardalote and Spotted Pardalote.
Episode illustration: Striated Pardalote
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Kirsty: This episode was recorded on the country of the Boonwurrung Bunurong people. The Boonwurrung Bunurong people have a continuing relationship to the land, waterways and sky. Their connection and spiritual identity is maintained through ancient ceremonies, songlines, dance, art and living culture. I would like to pay my respects to Elders past and present. I would also like to thank my Aboriginal friends for their continued guidance and support of this podcast.
Kirsty: Welcome to Weekend Birder. I'm your host, Kirsty Costa. In Episode 20, Nicholas Bishop reminded us that birdwatching isn't just about watching - it's about listening too.
Nicholas: When we're birdwatching, it's a multi-sensory experience. If you've got an opportunity to get out there in the bush and you're excited (like I am) to be in a new patch of bushland. And you've done a bit of research and you know that it's vibrating with promise of seeing amazing bird creatures. Remember that it's not just about fantastic binoculars, which I have and I adore. It's about using your ears as well. It's not just about seeing. And very often you'll hear before you see one of the really cool things. Practice "getting your ear in," as the birders say. I'm encouraging everybody out there to remember to get their ear in as well.
Kirsty: These words of wisdom have been echoed by other Weekend Birder guests as well. So in the next few episodes of this podcast, we are going to take Nicholas's advice and tune in our ears to some of the birds that we've heard about in Season One. Here are a few things before we start. Birds of the same species can have different calls depending on where they live in Australia. They also have a range of calls depending on the time of year and what they want to say to each other. So the best way to tune your ear is with your local birds. I'll share some recordings from around Australia, but the calls in your area might be slightly different. Okay. With that being said, let's start with an episode about pardalotes. These birds seem to be universally loved by Weekend Birder guests and also by Weekend Birder listeners. Pardalotes is a family of brightly coloured birds that are about ten centimetres high with short tails, strong legs and stubby blunt beaks. There are four species and they are all found in Australia. As Charuka told us in the last episode, endemic means only found in that location and not anywhere else in the world. The Forty-spotted Pardalote is endemic to Tasmania. It is an olive green colour with a pale chest and pale belly. Its face and under its tail are both yellow and it has these really striking black wings that have twenty spots on each side. Hence the name Forty-spotted Pardalote. This recording from Barry Edmondson is on South Bruny Island on Nuenonne Country. It's a rainy and windy day and a single Forty-spotted Pardalote is perched in a nearby tree.
<Recording of Forty-spotted Pardalote>
Kirsty: Next time you're in Tassie, I hope that you get to hear and see the Forty-spotted Pardalote because they are pretty rare. Let's travel up to the top half of Australia to listen to the Red-browed Pardalote. These inland and tropical birds like the woodlands of Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia. They are massy Grey Brown on their backs. They have white speckled black crown and a red spot above their bill. They also have this yellow strip on their wing, which makes them different to the rest of the Pardalote family. Like all pardalotes, Red-browed Pardalotes mainly eat insects and spiders. They really love lerps, which is a type of sap-sucking insect, and they actually play an important role in controlling lerp populations across Australia. They often like to hang out high in the canopy of eucalyptus gum trees, which can make them hard to see. But if you remember their call, you will know that they are there. This recording from Eddie Smith is of two birds calling in trees along a creek bank in Yarraden, which is in north west of Cooktown in Queensland, on the country of the Lama Lama people.
<Recording of Red-browed Pardalote>
Kirsty: If you're in Australia right now, there's a good chance that you will know the familiar sound of the Striated Pardalote. They pretty much live everywhere except for dry and arid areas, and because they live everywhere, their feather colour can be slightly different based on their location. But all Striated Pardalotes have got white eyebrows, a yellow spot on the front of the eyes and a white stripe on their wing. Like all pardalotes, they generally live in pairs or small family groups, and sometimes they like to come together in flocks after breeding. They are monogamous breeders and both partners share nest construction, incubation and chick rearing duties. They nest in a tree hollow or in deep horizontal tunnels drilled into the banks of Earth. How cool is that? Keep your eye out for a mouse sized hole because the Striated Pardalote call can slightly differ depending on their location. I've got two great recordings for you to tune your ear. This first recording from Mark Anderson was recorded in Dryandra Woodland National Park, which is on Wiilman country in Western Australia.
<Recording of Striated Pardalote>
Kirsty: This next recording of a Striated Pardalote is from Eddie Smith again. This time he's in Murray Bridge in regional South Australia on Ngarrindjeri country. You can hear Striated Pardalote eating lerps in the tree canopy. You might also hear a second Pardalote answering in the distance. How are your ears going? Can you hear the difference between each pardalotes call? We're finishing this episode with one of my personal favourites, the Spotted Pardalote. This bird is covered in small white spots on its wings, tail and head, and it commonly has a pale eyebrow, yellow throat and a red bottom. Here is Bridget Farmer's wonderful description of what it looks like from Episode 26.
Bridget: Spotted Pardalote - it's just a little jewel of a bird. It's beautiful when you see it up close. Just all the different colours and the and the little spots everywhere. I have a friend and he described it as as just like looking into the night sky, all those little white bright spots on its head. It's beautiful. And also I'm really pleased that I can now recognise its call. I was sitting in my garden in Hepburn Springs and a little Spotted Pardalote landed on a branch just next to me and it started making its call.
Kirsty: The Spotted Pardalote is found from Cooktown in Queensland, down the east coast to Tasmania and across to Western Australia. It is pretty common in urban areas and is sometimes known as the headache bird because it's got this continuous breeding call. That recording was by Ian Foxfield in Macedon Ranges Shire in Victoria, which is on the country of the Djadjawurrung Taungurung and Wurundjeri peoples.
<Recording of Spotted Pardalote>
Kirsty: You might have heard some other birds featured in Ian's recording. Did you hear the Australian Magpie? Did you hear the Black-faced Cuckooshrike? Did you hear the Little Raven? Let's tune our ear again, this time listening to the Spotted Pardalote, but also the Australian Magpie, the Black-faced Cuckooshrike and the Little Raven. Don't worry, you got this.
<Recording of Spotted Pardalote>
Kirsty: Now that you've got some pardalote calls stored away in some cells somewhere in your brain. Head outside and test it out. If you would like to listen again, you can also visit the xeno-canto.org website. And there are also lots of great apps to help you tune your ear. I'll add some of the links to the episode notes and I'll also add them to the Weekend Birder website. I hope you've enjoyed this episode of Tune Your Ear and next week we are going to hear some bigger birds with a much louder call. Happy birding.
