Red-browed pardalote (Pardalotus rubricatus) is endemic to Australia, where they glean foliage. North and central Australia, southwest Queensland, northeast South Australia and southwest New South Wales are all home to the red-browed pardalote. Using their short, scoop-shaped bills, these birds pick up manna and small insects from twigs, along with sugary lerps from leaves and scaly lerps from psyllid insects. This bird is also known as the Fawn-eyed Diamond Bird and the Red-lored Pardalote. Red-browed Pardalotes measure 100-110 mm in length.
They have long legs and hop, run, and crawl quickly through high foliage like mice, feeding almost exclusively in eucalypts. They are known as Diamond Birds for their spotting on their heads and wings which vary from bright to dull tones. Their stumpy-tailed wings and pointed tails allow them to dart bullet-like between trees. They are often regarded as Asian flowerpeckers, Dicaeidae, because of their general form and vestiges of their outermost primary.
Read More –Â Spotted Pardalote (Pardalotus punctatus)
The Acanthizidae, a family of birds that includes scrubwrens, thornbills, and owls, has been shown to be closely related to these birds by molecular studies. Throughout northern Australia, red-browed Pardalotes range south along tree-lined watercourses into the Lake Eyre basin in scrubbier, drier eucalypt woodlands. Their diet consists of insects, lerps, and other arthropods that are found in the outer foliage of eucalypt trees. As solitary feeders, they may maintain extended foraging territories throughout the year.
There is a continual alternation between feeding and singing in the daily routine. There are overlaps between Red-browed Pardalotes and Striated Pardalotes throughout their range. Although they use different habitats and breeding sites, the competition between them is largely avoided. Striated Pardalotes occupy higher, bushier eucalypt woodlands, and nest in tunnels in earth banks, usually by watercourses.
Red-browed Pardalotes occupy lower, shrubbery-covered eucalypt woodlands. Females dig out the nest tunnel with their feet, scrape with their feet, and build a cup of bark fibers at the end of the tunnel. The female may also carry out most of the incubation, the male singing territorially above for much of that time. A young child is fed by both parents.
Both sexes are similar to adults. Black crown with white spots and buffy yellow eyebrows with orange flashes at the front. The back and scapulars are fawn-brown, lightly to heavily flecked dusky, becoming washed yellow over the rump. Dusky wings, with yellow-orange washed bases and outer edges of light feathers; inner flight feathers narrowly tipped with white. The tail’s inner vanes are white, while the outer vanes are dusky. A large yellow spot appears in the middle of the breast, along with a pale white-fawn face and underparts. The eyes are pale yellow in color. Below the bill is flesh-white, while above it is dusky. There is a leaden grey color to the feet. The crown is lightly mottled dusky and white; eyebrows are olive-cream; rests of upperparts are plain fawn-olive; underparts uniformly pale yellow.
Males sing from sheltered vantage perches under the canopy of trees sporadically throughout the day to advertise them. There are five to six whistled notes in the song of Red-browed Pardalote. The first two or three were spaced and slurred. Each sound sounds higher than the preceding one, and the last three run together quickly, at the same pitch. On the other hand, the third-apparently by males as part of territorial advertisement; sometimes as part of call-and-answer between pairs that are separated.
Breeding and nesting in arid regions occur between July and December. A tunnel bored 500-800 mm into a bank with a nest chamber at the end is used as a nesting site. An extensive cup nest built from thin bark strips and sometimes lined with fine grasses.
There are usually three to four eggs laid by this bird, each of which is plain white and rounded-oval in shape. Eggs are about 19 mm by 15 mm in size. Females are primarily responsible for incubation. Across drier parts of the northern and inland mainland, the red-browed Pardalote is mainly found in eucalypt scrubs and low eucalypt-lined watercourses. There are two races.
