in praise of pardalotes, unique birds living in a damaged country
- Written by John Woinarski, Professor (conservation biology), Charles Darwin University

I’ve spent more of my life with pardalotes than with most other acquaintances. They are an obscure and odd group of four species of small (thumb-sized) birds. They have little public profile, not helped by the awkward name. But they are quintessentially Australian, occurring nowhere else in the world.
As a boy, I chanced upon a pair of...





