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Although birds are usually quite easy to see, often they are more difficult to identify. You may have had the briefest glimpse or heard a snatch of its song, or perhaps it was a bird you have never seen before. The best place to look for it is here.

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Atlas & Birdata

The Atlas is one of BirdLife Australia's greatest resources, allowing us to track changes in birds across the country. Since 1998 a dedicated band of... More >

Beach-nesting Birds

BirdLife Australia’s Beach-nesting Birds project works with community volunteers across Australia to help raise awareness among beach users about... More >

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BirdLife Australia has been running the Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo Recovery project since 2001. We work with various land managers, government and... More >

Shorebirds 2020

The Shorebirds 2020 program aims to reinvigorate and coordinate national shorebird population monitoring in Australia. To report on the population... More >

Woodland Birds for Biodiversity

Since European settlement one-third of Australia’s woodlands and 80% of temperate woodlands have been cleared. The Woodland Birds for Biodiversity... More >

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Forty-spotted Pardalote

Pardalotus quadragintus
Pardalotidae

The Forty-spotted Pardalote has the smallest range of all Australian pardalotes: it occurs only at a few sites in south-eastern Tasmania. Like other species of pardalotes, this species feeds mainly in the crowns of trees, especially eucalypts, where it plucks from the foliage the sugary substances that ooze from tiny insects known as psyllids. Sometimes they occur in mixed-species feeding-flocks with other species of pardalotes and honeyeaters, in which the Forty-spotted Pardalotes are dominant over both Striated and Spotted Pardalotes, but subordinate to Black-headed Honeyeaters.

Identification

Description

The Forty-spotted Pardalote is a small bird with a very short bill. It is a dull olive-green above with a pale grey chest and belly. The face and under the tail are olive-yellow. The wings are black, with prominent white spots, twenty on each side, that give the bird its name.

Similar Species

The Forty-spotted Pardalote is similar to the Spotted Pardalote, P. punctatus, especially the female. However it lacks the white eye-stripe, spotted crown and red-brown rump of this species and has a distinct greenish tinge to its upperparts.

Location

Distribution

The Forty-spotted Pardalote is endemic to Tasmania but is now extremely rare, being found in fragmented populations in south-eastern Tasmania and on Flinders, Bruny and Maria Islands.

Habitat

The Forty-spotted Pardalote lives in forests and woodlands close to the coast. It favours forests dominated by the manna gum, Eucalyptus viminalis, foraging on it almost exclusively. It sometimes comes into the suburbs of Hobart.

Behaviour

Feeding

Pairs or small groups of Forty-spotted Pardalotes forage in the canopy of trees for insects, larvae and manna. They especially favour lerps.

Breeding

Forty-spotted Pardalotes nest in hollows in the limbs or trunks of mature trees. They may also use stumps and logs, and occasionally nest in the ground. They sometimes must compete with the more dominant Striated Pardalote for nest sites, which they can more successfully defend as part of a small nesting colony. A domed or cup-shaped nest of fibrous bark and grass, lined with feathers or fur is built in the hollow. Both sexes build the nest and feed the young.

Conservation Status

Federal

Endangered

NSW

Not present

NT

Not present

QLD

Not present

SA

Not present

TAS

Endangered

VIC

Not present

WA

Not present