Victoria has a diverse range of habitats for such a condensed area and has many areas where large bird congregations can be seen.
Some of the unique species in the region include:
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Little Penguin
The Little Penguin is the smallest of the world’s 17 penguins and the only one which breeds in Australia. The male is a little larger than the female, although their plumage is similar. The head and upperparts are indigo in colour, with slate-grey ear coverts fading to white underneath, from the chin to the belly.…
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Cape Barren Goose
The Cape Barren Goose is about the same size as a domestic goose. It has pale grey plumage with black markings near the tips of its wing feathers and tail, pink legs and black feet. It has a striking bright greenish yellow cere on its short black bill. Males are somewhat larger than females. Scientific…
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Hooded Plover
Scientific Name: (Thinornis rubricollis) In eastern Australia, the Hooded Plover inhabits sandy ocean beaches that are exposed to the constant might of the swell. There they pick tiny invertebrates from the sand near the water’s edge, and they lay their eggs in shallow scrapes in the sand, either on the upper beach or in adjacent…
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Red-capped Plover
Scientific Name: (Charadrius ruficapillus)The Red-capped Plover is the most common and widespread of Australia’s beach-nesting shorebirds. They occur along virtually the entire Australian coastline.
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Powerful Owl
Scientific Name: (Ninox strenua)The largest of Australia’s owls, the Powerful Owl usually inhabits the moist forests of eastern Australia. Its main item of prey is possums of various species, though large bats such as flying foxes are also often caught.
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Superb Lyrebird
Scientific Name: (Menura novaehollandiae)The superb lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae) is an Australian songbird, one of two species from the family Menuridae. It is one of the world’s largest songbirds, and is renowned for its elaborate tail and courtship displays, and its excellent mimicry.
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Ground Parrot
Scientific Name: (Pezoporus wallicus)The Ground Parrot lives mostly in dense coastal and subcoastal heathlands, sedgelands and buttongrass plains, where there is a high diversity of low-growing plants.
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Orange-bellied Parrot
Scientific Name: (Neophema chrysogaster) Fascinatingly one of the only parrots in the World that migrates each year between feeding grounds and breeding grounds. The Orange-bellied Parrot breeds only in the South West of Tasmania. After breeding has concluded, most of the population migrates across Bass Strait to spend the winter months on southern mainland Australia.
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Swift Parrot
Scientific Name: (Lathamus discolor) Another migrating parrot. Swift Parrots breed only in Tasmania and then fly across Bass Strait to forage on the flowering eucalypts in open box–ironbark forests of the Australian mainland. While on the mainland, they are nomadic, spending weeks or months at some sites and only a few hours at others, determined…
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Turquoise Parrot
Scientific Name: (Neophema pulchella) The Turquoise Parrot favours open, grassy woodland with dead trees near permanent water. It also inhabits coastal heaths and pastures with exotic grasses and weeds, along roadsides and in orchards. Did You Know? The female turquoise parrot will sometimes take green foliage into the nest hole to line the floor. These…
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Red-tailed Black Cockatoo (Southern subspecies)
Scientific Name: (Calyptorhynchus banksii graptogyne) A large, noisy bird with a distinctive call (‘karak, karak’) and a crest that can be brought above the head and over the beak.
