Today’s Bird of the Day, the spotted pardalote, was chosen by quantitative ecologist and PhD candidate Carly Campbell, one of the authors of “Big changes in backyard birds: An analysis of long-term changes in bird communities in Australia’s most populous urban regions”.
She said, “Pardalotes are colourful little birds that you usually hear before you see. They tend to hang around in the canopy of eucalypts, but they nest in burrows in the ground.
“They can often be found in urban areas with a good cover of eucalypts.”
Campbell said if people wanted to better engage with urban birds they could create spaces for a variety of birds by choosing a variety of locally native plants that provided food, nesting spaces and refuge.
“It’s particularly important to keep vegetation dense enough to keep smaller species safe,” she said.
“It is also really important to be responsible pet owners by keeping pet cats indoors.
“And we need to encourage local governments to keep as much vegetation as possible in our cities.”
Read more about Campbell’s research into backyard birds here.
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