Ecology of the Forty-Spotted Pardalote

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Bruny Island

The 40 -spotted Pardalote is a very specialised bird. It is restricted to areas where a type of tree called Eucalyptus viminalis (white gum) grows, because it does the bulk of its foraging on that one species of eucalypt and it does it in a very specialised way.

Front on view Forty Spotted Pardalote Kim Murray — The Forty Spotted Pardalote is a highly specialised bird. Photo: Kim Murray

The Forty spotted Pardalote has a little hook on the end of its beak and it makes little incisions on the young shoots, and out of these little shoots a little bit of sap weeps out, crystallises, forms a substance called manna and then they come back and they pick that off, and that's the bulk of their diet. So it is a very, very specialised bird.

Now being specialised on one species of eucalypt means that it naturally has a very patchy distribution. But its distribution has contracted enormously during the period of British occupation of Tasmania.

So this is a bird that is endemic (restricted) to Tasmania. At the time of British invasion it occurred right across the eastern and northern parts of Tasmania and also on the Bass Strait Islands. Its range has now contracted right back pretty much to Bruny Island and Maria Island. Forty spotted pardalotes weigh about 10 grams each, so that's about 15 kilograms of Forty spotted pardalotes in the whole world! So these are listed as endangered.