PARDALOTIDAE - Pardalotes
Four species, three of which are represented in the Zoochat galleries.
A small family of just four species, all in the genus
Pardalotus. They are superficially similar to flowerpeckers (Dicaeidae) - albeit with unexpectedly long legs - but are most closely related to honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) and Australian warblers (Acanthizidae). Unusually they nest in burrows in the ground rather than in tree holes or by building nests as in other members of the Meliphagoidea. Some species and subspecies are sexually-dimorphic while in others there are no plumage differences between the male and female.
There has always been a lot of variation in the taxonomy of pardalotes, with the Spotted Pardalote formerly being split as two species and the Striated Pardalote into as many as four species due to how different the subspecies are in appearance.
Photo by
@Chlidonias of a pardalote nest burrow.
pardalote burrow - ZooChat
Pardalotus
Four species, three of which are represented in the Zoochat galleries.
Spotted Pardalote Pardalotus punctatus
Three subspecies:
militaris, punctatus, xanthopyge. The last-named is sometimes considered a full species (the Yellow-rumped Pardalote).
Found in southern and eastern Australia:
militaris in the Queensland Wet Tropics;
punctatus in southwest Western Australia, and around the coast from eastern South Australia to central Queensland, as well as in Tasmania; and
xanthopyge in inland southern Australia.
Only the nominate subspecies appears to be depicted in the Zoochat galleries.
Photo by
@Dannelboyz in the wild, Australia (adult male of the subspecies
punctatus). Note the bright yellow throat and the white spotting on the crown.
Spotted Pardalote (male) - Pardalotus punctatus - ZooChat
Photo by
@Hix in the wild, Australia (adult female of the subspecies
punctatus). Note the pale throat and the buff spotting on the crown, which is variable in females from buff as in this photo to bright yellow as in the following photo.
Spotted Pardalote - ZooChat
Photo by
@WhistlingKite24 in the wild, Australia (adult female of the subspecies
punctatus). This photo shows the colour of the rump - in the subspecies
xanthopyge the rump is yellow.
Spotted Pardalote (Pardalotus punctatus) - ZooChat
Photo by
@Hix in the wild, Australia (immature male of the subspecies
punctatus).
Spotted Pardalote - ZooChat
Forty-spotted Pardalote Pardalotus quadragintus
Monotypic.
Found only in southeast Tasmania and on Flinders Island in Bass Strait.
There are no photos of this species in the Zoochat galleries.
Red-browed Pardalote Pardalotus rubricatus
Two subspecies:
rubricatus and
yorki
Found across northern and central Australia, from Western Australia to Queensland and northwest NSW, with the subspecies
yorki (if separated) being restricted to the Cape York Peninsula.
Photo by
@Hix in the wild, Australia (adult of the subspecies
rubricatus). There is no difference in plumage between the sexes.
Red-browed Pardalote - ZooChat
Striated Pardalote Pardalotus striatus
Six subspecies:
melanocephalus, melvillensis, ornatus, striatus, substriatus, uropygialis
Found over most of Australia:
melanocephalus in central to southeast Queensland;
melvillensis on the Tiwi Islands off the Northern Territory;
ornatus in southeast Australia from northeast NSW to southeast Victoria;
striatus in Tasmania and on the Bass Strait islands (breeding) and in southeast Australia (wintering range, when it occupies the same part of Australia as the subspecies
ornatus);
substriatus across southern Australia from Western Australia to western Victoria and western Queensland; and
uropygialis across northern Australia from northeast Western Australia to Queensland's Cape York Peninsula.
The subspecies fall into two distinct groups, the northern "black-crowned" forms (
melanocephalus, melvillensis, and
uropygialis) in which the sexes are dimorphic (males have solid black caps and females have speckled caps), and the southern "stripe-crowned" forms (
ornatus, striatus, and
substriatus) in which the sexes are the same in appearance.
Photo by
@WhistlingKite24 in the wild, Australia (male of the subspecies
melanocephalus).
Striated Pardalote - ZooChat
Photo by
@Hix in the wild, Australia (female of the subspecies
melanocephalus). It isn't extremely clear in the photo due to the bird's position but the speckled cap can be just discerned.
Striated Pardalote - ZooChat
Photo by
@Hix in the wild, Australia (adult of the subspecies
ornatus). This photo illustrates the very streaked head, in contrast to the solid black cap of the northern subspecies in the photos above.
Striated Pardalote - ZooChat
