Pardalotes at Christmas

We put up our home-grown Christmas tree in our family room yesterday, wondering what the resident pardalotes would think of it. Their nest burrow is high up in the mudbrick wall above the TV (next to the tree), but although I can just reach the top of the tree if I really stretch, it's still well below the nest.

The Pardalotes seemed unconcerned. they have been quite active and vocal for several days, flitting in an out of the nest, chirruping and chirping to each other, then flying along the top windows to find their favourite exit above the windows to the outside world. I suspect they're raising a baby in the nest, but can see nothing.

I did have a little observer the other day, when I was working in the kitchen. It popped its head out of the nest and sat there watching me for a good 15 minutes or so. I don't know if it was an adult or juvenile, male or female - unfortunately, they all look the same. It disappeared back into the hole when I went to the other end of the house.

Perhaps I should explain how we came to have Striated Pardalotes nesting inside our house.
I'd heard them calling for several seasons (a loud "phe-ew, phe-ew!" from the treetops), but it took a long time to actually spot one, as they're so small and they flit from tree to tree, high among the leaves.
We live on the fringe of Melbourne, Australia, on a hilly 25-acre block, partly cleared but with plenty of native trees and plants around the house. I have seen Pardalotes around the house, in earth banks and under the carport.
Our house is very rustic, built of mud bricks and timber, with high ceilings, huge beams and big, old bridge timbers, so there are gaps high above the clerestory windows (which we didn't actually notice  as they are way above our eye level!). We do get large moths inside when it's 'moth season', but I've made a moth net to catch them and put them outside again. we also get the occasional micro-bat in the house, but they find their way out again.

One day earlier in the year, there was a little pardalote fluttering inside the bedroom windows. At first I thought it was a large moth, but realised it was a bird. I caught it in my moth net and put it outside, thinking that would be the last of it. The following week it was back, so I caught it again and took it outside - I was sure that was the end of the friendship.
However, the next week I spotted a pardalote pecking at the wall inside the family room. The wall had some damage, caused by rain pelting on it and seeping through near the window timber.
The bird made a small hole below the window, but a few days later began another burrow, higher up.
I couldn't believe that it would actually use the burrow, but over the weeks there were two birds coming inside and working on the burrow.

Their small, stubby beaks were ideal shovels, and they flung the excavated mud out as they worked. It certainly made a mess, with fine mud dust over everything below, but that was a small price to pay for the novelty and privilege of having wild birds nesting in our house. I was even prepared for droppings (swallows nest outside under the eaves and make a pile of droppings below) but the Pardalotes seem to manage without making any mess - they seem to go outside to answer their calls of nature.
So now we have birds living in our house. we don't know when they're there until we hear them chirruping, hear the soft whirr of wings along the windows or see them come and go from the nest. Often I'll put the kettle on, to see a little head pop out as if the say Hi. What a delight. It's been months now, and I still can't quite believe it!

Here's a short clip of one of the birds flying out of the nest hole:

Pardalote leaving the nest hole