Over the last few weeks, striated pardalotes have been chirping around the neighbourhood. Nothing else could be as distinctive as their incessant but cute "chippa chip" calls. According to the ornithologist at work, they are apparently relatively common in Perth's suburbs - more common than you would think. But are rarely seen, because they are tiny, more or less brown and spent most of their time flittering within eucalypt canopies.
But, for some reason, one raucous male last week decided to bail me up in my house and spend his time having a go at my windows and peering inside a hole in the external wall.
He started with the front window.. very distracting he was too.. because this is what I could see while working at the computer.
And then he moved around to the kitchen window - where he performed to two other birds who came around to investigate his chirping and wing-waving at the window.
There were concerns that he was spending way too much time responding to his reflection - an amazing fact alone was that that our scungy, dirty windows actually could cast a reflection. But he did also spend a lot of time performing at a hole in the wall and to the other birds, so I had hopes that they were going to nest there. He eventually did move on from the kitchen after a week and now I can hear him chip-chipping among large trees around the suburban block.
I rate the striated pardalote a 9.5 out of 10 on the cute scale. Damn handsome and very yellow about the chops.
And here is a pair in a more natural setting, flitting about their nest hole in a wandoo (Eucalyptus wandoo) at Dryandra woodland, 159 km SE of Perth.
UPDATE (10th June)
ReplyDeletehe's back on the shrub outside the kitchen window, but not spending too much time at all waving his wings at the window.