Pardalotes are tiny, neat little birds that usually spend very little time in one spot. So when I was walking along a bush path this morning, I was surprised when a female pardalote kept flitting up to a branch near me and stopping to peer at me. She’d also twitch from side to side, as if dancing.

Then a male bird arrived and fluttered from branch to branch around me. Then another female.

They didn’t seem worried, just attentive.

It dawned on me that I might be near their nest. Pardalotes are unusual in that they nest in holes just above ground level, usually dug into in a bank of earth. So I looked down towards my feet. Sure enough, there was a series of entrances dug into the bank near my ankles.

The nesting tunnels are nicely shored up by a strong wooden pole provided by some obliging person. Just the ticket for a pardalote home!

I moved a few steps further down the path, then stopped to watch. Now that I was out of the way, the birds were happy to visit their homes again. I saw birds popping in and out of two of the tunnels. The short clip below shows one of the female birds balancing on the slope outside a nesting hole, then flying away:

The video below shows the female flying away from the tunnel entrance, then returning and going inside, then there’s some footage of the male bird on a nearby branch. This is the only shot I managed to get of the male:

Another shot of one of the females:

And another, from a different angle:

Here’s a general shot of the bushland around the birds. An open forest of eucalypts and banksia. What a lovely place to live, even in the midst of a Sydney winter:

Common name: Spotted Pardalote

Scientific name: Pardalotus punctatus

Approximate length: 10 cm

Date spotted: 1 July 2018 (Winter)

Location: Manly Dam National Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’26.9″S 151°15’00.3″E