Australian Birds

Information for travelers wanting to see and understand Australian birds

After viewing this page you may like also to visit further information on Austarlian birds and other wildlife

Eagles, owls, ducks and many other groups of birds are fairly closely related to birds of other continents (the magpie ‘goose’ is one of the exceptions).

A few of our songbirds are also related to birds of other regions, but most of our songbird families are primarily Australian (usually occurring also in New Guinea and other neighbouring islands, often also in parts of southeast Asia and the southwest Pacific)

Australian songbirds

Songbirds (passerines) may have first arisen in the Australian part of Gondwana as some Australlian and New Zealand birds have primitive characteristics and some of the oldest songbird fossils have been found here. Today many songbird families are either confined to or centered in Australia and New Guinea. The common names given by early settlers – such as ‘magpie’, ‘robin’, ‘thrush’, ‘wren’ etc. are misleading, as the birds that still bear such names here are generally not related to birds with similar names in the Northern Hemisphere.

Lyrebirds

The lyrebirds – found only in Australia – are probably the world’s best mimics. The male raises his lyre-like, shimmery tail, and produces a lengthy and very remarkable song featuring many calls of other birds plus other forest sounds (and sometimes nowadays some human-origin sounds such as axes and digital cameras) in an attempt to attract the female, as well as announcing that his territorial boundaries are still being protected.

Lyrebirds are found in the rainforests and tall moist eucalypt forests of southeasten Australia, from Victoria to southern Queensland. There are two species – the superb (found from Victoria to Queensland) and Albert’s (restricted to the mountains of southeast Queensland and northeast New SouthWales). Places to look for lyrebirds include Sherbrooke Forest (near Melbourne), Lamington National Park (southeast Queensland). You are more likely to hear them than see them – if you hear many different bird calls plus other sounds all coming from the same source, low in the forest, especfially during the mating period, it may well be one of these wonderful mimics. Unlike most birds, they breed during the colder months.

Bowerbirds

Bowerbirds are found only in Australia and New Guinea. The males, which take several years to mature, make ‘bowers’ of varying complexity, some of them highly decorated, into which to attract the female for breeding. The easiest bowerbird (and easiest bower) to find is the satin bowerbird, which decorates its bower with blue objects, orgibnally flowers , fruits, feathers, bits of invertebrate exoskeletion and other natural objects, but nowadays often including drinking straws, pens, bottle tops and other man-made articles.

Birds of Paradise

Birds of Paradise are also found only in Australia in New Guinea. Most are in New Guinea, just four species (three riflebirds and the manucode) being found in Australia. The paradise riflebird is the only species found in southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales (for instance Lamington National Park and Border Ranges National Park), the other three being found in the rainforests of the far north.

Australian ‘magpies’ and their relatives

One of the most familiar birds of open forest, farmlands and suburbs is the bird known as the Australian magpie. It is not closely related to the magpies of the northern hemsiphere, but its size and the fact that it is black and white prompted the early English settlers to call it a ‘magpie’ and the name has stuck. It is one of the first birds to call at sunrise – a cheerful, rather complex warbling.

Closely related are the butcherbirds (several species, and not related to the shrikes known as butcherbirds in Europe) and currawongs (named from one of their calls). All these birds are confined to Australia and New Guinea, but DNA analysis has shown them to also be related to the woodswallows of Australia, New Guinea and southeast Asia.

Honeyeaters

This is another family that is primarily Australian, but extending into eastern Indonesia and the southwest Pacific.

It is the largest songbird family in Australia, with over 70 species, and they occur in almost all habitats, from arid and semi-arid through to lush rainforests. Open eucalypt forests, eucalypt woodlands, eucalypts along outback watercourses, banksia heathlands and suburban gardens are some of the places you are most likely to encounter members of this very diverse group.

Other Australian songbirds

There are many other Australian somgbirds, such as the delightful fairy-wrens, the ‘robins’ (which are not robins but most have red or pink brerasts, and a couple have yellow breasts), whistlers (which go against the usual rule of bright-coloured birds not having pleasant voices), chats (brillinatly coloured birds of the arid regions), mud-nesters (apostlebirds and choughs, a strictly Australian family found in inland dry forests and woodlands), the magpielark (which also builds a mud nest but is related to the monarchs, and found in most open habitats throughout Australia) and many more.

Other Australian birds

Cockatoos and parrots

Of the 18 cockatoo species in the world, 14 are found in Australia. We also have many bright-coloured parrots, including the exclsusively-Australian rosellas, and the lorikeets that are found in many of our suburbs as well as open forests.

Some large birds

Magpie geese are not really geese, but in a family all their own. They are one of our largest birds, and most common in the far north, but can sometimes be seen as far south as New South Wales.

Other large birds are the emu (still common in a few coastal areas, but mostly seen in the outback), cassowary (rainforests of northern Queensland), black-necked stork (our only stork – some still call it a jabiru, but this is the name of a South American stork), brolga (a crane with a marvellous courtship display), Sarus crane (very similar to the brolga, found from Australia to India) and bustard.

Birds of prey

The wedgetailed eagle is our largest eagle, slightly larger than the American bald eagle. The largest talons in Australia however belong to the white-bellied sea-eagle, which is quite capable of catching ducks. There are many other birds of prey,  the smallest being the nankeen kestrel (or Australian kestrel), found in most parts of Australia.

Kingfishers

The laughing kookaburra is the largest of the kingfishers, with a very distinctive ‘laughing’ call: a cheerful chorus is often heard at sunrise and towards dusk.The blue-winged kookaburra of the north has a somewhat different call. We also have a number of smaller kingfishers with brilliant blue or blue-green on the back. Very few of our kingfishers live on fish – most primarily catch insects and small terrrestrial invertebrates such as lizards (the kookaburra also eats snakes). One that does catch fish is the very pretty azure kingfisher, which tends to follow platypus in the hope that it will disturb some fish while foraging for its own prey.

Frogmouths

Frogmouths are distinctive-looking birds, often not seen by day because they have such excellent camouflage and appear to be part of whatever branch they are sitting on.  At night they prey on large insects and small verebrates. They are not closely related to owls, but are uinstead in the same order as nightjars and potoos.

Click here for further natural hustory information on our birds and other wildlife

There are many excellent Australian bird books available:

• Morcombe, Field Guide to Australian Birds
• Pizzey & Knight, The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia
• Simpson & Day, Field Guide to the Birds of Australia
• Slater, Slater and Slater, The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds