Birds

A medium shorebird with long skinny legs and a long beak. The Oystercatcher has a black head and black with a white belly, orange-red eyes, and very distinctive orange legs and beak. Size 50 cm long (from head to tail)

Brahminy kites are medium sized birds of prey common in coastal areas. Adults have an unmistakable white head and chest with a chestnut brown coloured body. They have dark coloured eyes and a strongly hooked, yellow beak. The tail is relatively short and can have white tips. Size male 45 cm, female 51 cm with an average wing span of 120 cm

Large, pale ash-grey goose with a square black tail. Its triangular bill is almost completely covered by a greenish-yellow cere (skin above the bill). Rows of large dark spots in lines across its shoulders and wing coverts. Legs are pink with black feet. In flight it shows dark wingtips. Size Between 75-100 cm. Males are larger than females weighing between 3.5-5.5 kg while females weigh on average 3.5 kg. Their wingspan measures between 150-190 cm.

The Channel-billed Cuckoo is grey all over, with dark scalloping on its back and wing-coverts, a whitish belly and abdomen, and fine dark barring on the lower underbody. Its long tail is pale-grey on top with two central feathers tipped with white, with a black band near the tip; the undertail has black-and-white barring. In flight, its tail and wings give it a cross-shaped silhouette. Its eyes are bright red and there is a bare patch of red skin around the eye and near the base of the bill. Its legs and feet are dark grey. Young birds are mottled buff, brown and grey, have an olive to brown eye and lack the red-colouring around its eye. Distinctive feature Its large, downward-curved beak which is greyish with a paler tip.

Black and white, with the pattern varying across its range. The back of its neck, upper tail and shoulders (on its wings) are white in males and grey in females, and (across most of Australia) the rest of its body is black. In south-eastern, central and south-western Australia, including Tasmania, its back and rump are entirely white. Its eye is red-brown. Young birds are usually grey rather than black and have dark eyes. Distinctive feature One toe faces backwards and three face forwards. It has a square-tipped tail.

The adult male is a distinctive glossy black tinged with iridescent blue and green all over, including its long tail, and it has a striking red eye. The female is glossy brown with white spots on top, and buff-cream underneath with many fine black bars running across its belly. The top of its head is black or brown with pale streaks, and its tail is brown with white bars running across it. A young bird looks like an adult female but has buff barring on its wings and generally much more buff colouring.

It has a grey back and head, and bright-yellow underparts. Southern birds have an olive-yellow rump, while birds in northern Australia have a brighter yellow rump. Its throat is off-white and when seen in flight, it has a pale bar on its wings. Its bill is black. Young birds are rufous-brown with paler streaks. Size 13 – 17 cm long, the males are slightly larger

An adult male has a bright orange breast and throat, with white on its lower belly and under its tail. The upperparts are dark slate grey and there is a clear white stripe on its folded wing. It has a black beak and dark brown legs. A female is mostly grey-brown with a pale buff strip on its wing. Its outermost tail feather is mostly white. A young bird looks like an adult female, but its back has buff streaks and its belly is pale with brown streaks. Size 12  - 14 cm

Medium sized shorebird with a straight, slender bill and a heavily streaked head and neck. Non breeding plumage in Australia; pale to chestnut head, neck and upper breast. White underparts. In breeding plumage they have a black band across the chest, and black, white and reddish speckles on the upperparts (Great Knots breed in Siberia). Size A medium-sized shorebird

A black and white bird, the pattern varies slightly between sexes. The male has a white eyebrow above a black horizontal eye-stripe, a black face and throat, while the female has a white face and throat, with a broad vertical stripe through the eye, and no white eyebrow. Both sexes have a thin white bill and black legs and feet. Juvenile Magpie-larks have a black forehead, white eyebrow and a white throat.

A medium sized bird with Orange legs and feet. Brown upper wing, head and neck. May have a blue tinted neck. It has a small downwards pointed tail with an orange/yellow beak. It builds a mound for a nest made of a large heap of mostly decomposing organic matter (leaves, earth, sticks, debris, sand etc) that are circular or elongated. Distinctive feature A black crest on the top of the head.

A colourful bird, the upper part of its back is bright green, merging to light blue on the lower part to its rump. Its tail is black, tinged with blue, and has two long central feathers (called streamers) that extend beyond the tip of the tail. Its forehead is blue-green and the top of its head is golden. A bold black eye-stripe runs from the base of its beak and is bordered below by a narrow blue line. Its chin is yellow, changing to chestnut on its throat, below which is a broad black band. It has a green breast, becoming paler on the belly and changing to light blue from the lower belly to the vent. It has a long, slim, curved black beak and its legs and feet are grey-black. Young birds are generally duller and greener. They lack the black band across the lower throat and the long tail streamers. Distinctive feature The sexes differ in the length of their tail streamers: the male has longer, more slender streamers.

A fleshy reddish wattle (skin flap) is on the side of the neck. Plumage is grey-brown on body, with prominent white streaks and yellow on belly. Face is pale and tail is long with a white-tip. Young Red Wattlebirds are duller than the adult and have a brown, rather than reddish, eye. The wattle is also very small and pale. Its nest is an untidy saucer of sticks, leaves, and grass lined with bark-strips, fur, and hair; 2 - 16 m high in the fork of a tree or on a branch against trunk. Size 33 - 37 cm long

Stocky, medium-sized migratory shorebird with a short black bill and short orange legs. Back, head and upper chest is marked with black-brown and pale areas (tortoise shell-like) with a white breast. The bill is wedge-shaped and slightly up-tilted. In flight, there is a distinctive black and white pattern. Distinctive features The distinctive marking and dark and white pattern in flight make the Ruddy Turnstone unmistakeable, along with their habitat of turning over stones.

Chalcophaps longirostris sandwichensis Other names: Pacific Emerald Dove The Sot Leg, or Pacific Emerald Dove, is a squat ground-dwelling pigeon found in tropical and sub-tropical parts of Indonesia, Australia, and the western Pacific. It is found in all provinces of Vanuatu. They are usually solitary but can be found in small groups. It is rarely found above 600 m in elevation. The male has a white patch on the edge of its shoulders and grey crown. Females have a browner complexion and a grey mark on the shoulder. Adults have eyes that are dark brown and the bill bright orange-red. Young birds resemble females with brown scallops on their bodies and wings. Their wings have less green and the bill is dull. Distinctive features One toe faces backwards and three face forwards. The back and wings are emerald-green (shiny green), though the green can be inconspicuous when in flight. When in flight, pale bars on the back may be seen and the underwing is buff coloured. The shoulder is bright pale blue. Flight feathers and tail are blackish. The head and underparts are a muddy purple-rufous colour and the legs and feet are rufous. Size The Sot Leg is stocky and medium sized, typically 23-28 cm in length (from head to tail). Behaviour Call Its song is an accelerating and rising series of around six to seven mournful coos. They also have a nasal “hoo-hoo-hoon” call. Diet Forages on the ground, often searching for fallen fruit. They also eat seeds. Flight Flight is fast and direct, but it prefers to walk rather than fly. It is often flushed when approached closely and has a loud wing-clatter. Breeding The Sot Leg builds a stick nest in trees, up to 5 m from the ground. It lays two cream-coloured eggs. The males perform a bobbing dance when courting the females.

Males have a rich blue and black plumage above and on the throat. The belly is grey-white and the beak is black. In non-breeding plumage, called eclipse, he is very similar to the female. Females and young birds are mostly brown above with a dull red-orange area around the eye and brown beak. Females have a pale green gloss, absent in young birds, on the otherwise brown tail. Both sexes possess brown legs. The nest is dome-shaped consisting of grass, moss, rootlets, twigs, spiders webs and other bramble. Found low in tussock, shrub or bracken.

Mostly bright green, with a blue crown, cheeks and colouring on its wings. It has red around its bill, throat and forehead, and bright red patches under each wing. The red on its throat is edged with yellow and its long, pointed tail is purple-red. The female is slightly duller, with a creamy bar under its wings. Size About 25 cm; ; Wingspan 32 – 36 cm

A large bird of prey with a dark grey back and a white head, white chest and white belly. Their legs are also white and have long black talons. They have dark eyes and a light-coloured, hooked beak. When viewed in flight, the undersides of the wings are a distinctive half white and half grey-brown. First-year juveniles have a buffish and ‘spiky’ head, contrasting with patchy cream and dark brown body and wings; underwing pattern also patchy, but note half-moon at base of tail feathers. Older juveniles have a pale buff-grey tail. Their nests are massive, made of sticks and branches, usually found in a tall living tree near water or on a remote coastal cliff (on ground if on an island). Distinctive feature A wedge-shaped tail, distinctive when seen in flight.

A medium-sized black and white honeyeater. It has large bright yellow tail and wing panels, with a large conspicuous white cheek patch on a mainly black head. Young birds are duller with brownish plumage. Size 16-18 cm

One of Australia's most widespread birds on mainland.Mostly black with a white belly and eyebrow.  A young bird has paler, slightly rusty edges to its wing feathers. Size 18 - 22 cm long (from head to tail)

The male is grey with a red bill, orange-tan cheeks and flanks. The flanks also have white spots. Its rump is white, and its tail is black with white bars. The female has a red bill, a black/white face and tail markings, and is otherwise grey. Size 10 cm