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Australasian Grebe
The Australasian Grebe is usually confined to freshwater wetlands, and can often be seen swimming singly or in twos on farm dams. They build floating nests —a platform made from green aquatic vegetation — into which bluish-white eggs are laid, sometimes by two females. When the young hatch they have striped down and proportionally oversized webbed feet, and are able to swim almost immediately. Not becoming independent for eight weeks after hatching, they follow their parents about, and they sometimes nestle onto the back of a swimming adult to rest
Australasian Shoveler
Often associating with other species of ducks, the Australasian Shoveler is often seen in flocks with Pink-eared Ducks. They inhabit a wide variety of wetlands, ranging from terrestrial swamps and lakes to estuaries and even sheltered inshore waters. They prefer wetlands with areas of open water fringed by abundant aquatic vegetation, where they feed in small groups by dabbling in the mud or at the water’s surface to filter small aquatic invertebrates from the water, using small grooves, or lamellae, on the sides of the birds’ spatulate bills.
Australasian Darter
Because of its long and slender neck, the Australasian Darter is sometimes called the snakebird. Usually inhabiting freshwater wetlands, darters swim with their bodies submerged beneath the water’s surface, with only the sinuous neck protruding above the water, enhancing its serpentine qualities. Darters forage by diving to depths of about 60 centimetres, and impaling fish with its sharp, spear-like beak. Small fish are swallowed underwater, but larger ones are brought to the surface, where they are flicked off the bill (sometimes into the air) and then swallowed head-first.
Australian Pelican
The Australian Pelican is often seen around the coasts, where it can be seen roosting on sandbanks, rock platforms and reefs, or swimming in lagoons, bays and estuarine waters, dipping their oversized bills into the water to catch fish. However, on the rare occasions that monsoonal rains flood the salt lakes in the arid inland of Australia, many pelicans take advantage of the conditions and flock there in their thousands to breed. When it dries out, they leave and head for other less-ephemeral terrestrial wetlands or the coast.
Australian Wood Duck
The Australian Wood Duck has adapted to modified environments remarkably well. You are just as Australian Wood Ducks loafing at the edge of a farm dam or ornamental pond as beside a swamp, or swimming on a reservoir as on a lake, or foraging on a golf course or in green pasture as in a water meadow or grassland. They even sometimes build their nests in chimneys instead of tree hollows. This level of adaptability has allowed the species to expand its range greatly since Europeans colonised Australia.
Australian Spotted Crake
The Australian Spotted Crake is a rather secretive bird. It usually skulks about among dense vegetation at the edges of wetlands, though sometimes they come out into the open, and not nearly as shy as many other species of crakes and rails. When they walk, they constantly flick their tail to reveal a white patch of plumage, and if they are disturbed, they may run in a crouched posture with the tail cocked. Australian Spotted Crakes also swim occasionally, though usually only to cross channels or streams.
Black Swan
Black Swans are widespread throughout much of Australia, and occur wherever there is a wetland, from river estuaries, bays and great lakes to inundated pasture and water-meadows. In some places, where the wetlands are permanent, Black Swans are sedentary, remaining throughout the year. However, where the wetlands dry out for part of the year, swans are forced to disperse over wide distances in search of suitable water, and have even been recorded swimming in isolated waterholes surrounded by vast tracts of arid stony desert.
Black Tailed Native Hen
Black-tailed Native-hens may be absent from a region for many years, but when the rains come, filling the wetlands and making the conditions suitable for nesting, they may breed up and then they move into new areas in huge numbers, forming remarkable influxes called irruptions. These birds seldom fly, and they mostly run across the landscape, their red legs flashing beneath them, and the effect of seeing thousands and thousands of these birds on the move is like a seeing moving carpet of birds.
Black-winged Stilt
The long, slender bill of the Black-winged Stilt is used like a pair of fine tweezers as the bird forages by pecking at tiny invertebrates on the water’s surface. Although this is its most common feeding method, stilts have been recorded using at least nine different methods to feed. They usually forage by wading in water up to belly deep, but also feed along the muddy margins of wetlands, regularly forming large, noisy feeding flocks, often in association with Banded Stilts and Red-necked Avocets.
Blue Billed Duck
Although they usually nest solitarily, outside the breeding season Blue-billed Ducks may congregate in large flocks, sometimes comprising a thousand birds or more, with most of the birds probably juveniles. These huge congregations form on large, deep lakes where they forage for aquatic vegetation and invertebrates, mostly by diving deep underwater to filter food from soft mud. They are almost always seen on the water, swimming, feeding or loafing, and on the rare occasions they are seen on land they walk with a penguin-like gait.
Buff-banded Rail
Occasionally seen as it quickly dashes between clumps of rank grass, rushes or other overgrown vegetation, the Buff-banded Rail is often otherwise difficult to observe as it skulks about, concealed by plant cover. Its harsh squeaks may reveal its presence. The species inhabits a wide range of terrestrial wetlands, as well as coastal beaches, reef flats, mangroves, where it forages on the ground, pecking and probing in mud to catch crustaceans, worms and other invertebrates. Rails on beaches may scavenge along the strandline.
Caspian Tern
Australia’s largest tern, the Caspian Tern is easily identified by its large, bright-red, dagger-like bill. They forage by plunge-diving into the water from heights of up to 15 metres, grabbing a fish with that massive beak. Caspian Terns are able to take larger fish than any other Australian tern. They are widespread around virtually the entire Australian coastline, and also occur inland along major rivers, especially in the Murray–Darling and Lake Eyre drainage basins, preferring wetlands with clear water so they can detect their prey.
Cattle Egret
Since Cattle Egrets were first recorded in Australia in 1948, their range has expanded to include eastern and northern Australia, and also along major inland river systems. Their breeding colonies are often shared with other species of waterbirds, especially herons, ibis and other egrets. Cattle Egrets are usually seen stalking about in pasture, accompanying cattle to snap up insects as they are disturbed by the beasts. They also follow other grazing animals, including sheep, horses, goats, alpacas, and in zoos, elephants!
Chestnut Teal
Although the Chestnut Teal occurs at wetlands hundreds of kilometres inland, the species’ strongholds are usually near the coast. It is one of the few species of Australian ducks that can tolerate habitats with highly saline water. They regularly occur in estuaries, inlets, exposed mudflats, coastal lagoons, saltmarsh and evaporation ponds at saltworks. Nevertheless, they also occur at freshwater wetlands. They usually feed at the margins of wetlands, among aquatic vegetation in the shallows or upending in deeper water, or dabbling on recently covered mudflats or sand.
Dusky Moorhen
The dusky moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa) is a bird species in the rail family and is one of the eight extant species in the moorhen genus. It occurs in India, Australia, New Guinea, Borneo and Indonesia. It is often confused with the purple swamphen and the Eurasian coot due to similar appearance and overlapping distributions. They often live alongside birds in the same genus, such as the Tasmanian nativehen and the common moorhen.
Eurasian Coot
Also known as the common coot,or Australian coot, is found in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Africa.
It is reluctant to fly. When taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing. It does the same, when travelling a short distance at speed in territorial disputes or to escape from intruders. Its weak flight does not inspire confidence, but on migration, usually at night, it can cover surprisingly large distances. It bobs its head as it swims, and makes short dives from a little jump.
Freckled Duck
Australia’s rarest waterfowl, the Freckled Duck breeds in swamps in inland Australia. When these wetlands dry out in the summer months, the Freckled Ducks are forced to disperse towards coastal and subcoastal wetlands, usually swamps where there is much fallen timber that they can loaf amongst. Sometimes, if there is a drought, there may be few of these wetlands available for them, so they may congregate into flocks on whatever wetlands are available, sometimes giving the impression that they are more common than they really are.
Great Cormorant
The Great Cormorant is the largest species of cormorant in Australia. Its plumage is mostly black with a slight greenish sheen, visible only in good light. During the breeding season, Great Cormorants have orange-red skin on their faces and throats, but this fades to yellow at other times. They breed in colonies, often with other species of cormorants, herons, ibises and spoonbills, their platform-like stick nests built in trees in terrestrial wetlands, including floodwaters, or on coastal cliffs or offshore islands.
Great Crested Crebe
With its spiky, black crest and chestnut mane, the Great Crested Grebe is unmistakable. It inhabits wetlands from rivers and lakes to estuaries and sheltered bays, but favours large, deep, open bodies of fresh water. Although the species sometimes appears ungainly, Great Crested Grebes perform elaborate courtship displays, which include activities such as the ‘weed dance’ and the elegant ‘penguin dance’. The latter display involves birds stretching their necks upwards, then suddenly rising up out of the water with their feet paddling vigorously and their breasts touching.
Great Egret
One of Australia’s most elegant birds, the snowy-white Eastern Great Egret is often seen wading in a range of wetlands, from lakes, rivers and swamps to estuaries, and intertidal mudflats. They usually feed in shallow water, standing and waiting for fish, frogs, insects and other small aquatic creatures to appear before stabbing them with its long, yellow bill. They also walk slowly through the water, on the lookout for prey. Large fish are eaten with difficulty, and are often snatched from the bill of the egret by raptors.
Gray Teal
When it comes to spectacular movements, the Grey Teal is unsurpassed by any other Australian waterfowl. Responding to rainfall, or lack of it, they cover vast distances in search of suitable water, and occur on every type of wetland. When the water dries up, they disperse to look for more, turning up almost anywhere, including at waterholes in the desert. These extensive travels have also taken some Grey Teal beyond Australia's shores to Indonesia, New Guinea and New Zealand, and even to subantarctic Macquarie Island.
Hardhead
The Hardhead is a medium-sized duck which appears mainly chocolate brown when swimming, with a white under tail. In flight, the underwings are white, edged with brown. A white breast patch is obvious in flight and when standing in the shallows. The name ‘Hardhead’ has nothing to do with the density of the duck’s cranium, but stems from early taxidermists who found that the head was the most difficult part of the duck to process.
Hoary-headed Grebe
The often occur singly, but Hoary-headed Grebes are sometimes also seen in flocks which may comprise hundreds or even thousands of birds. When confronted by a raptor, grebes in a flock may all dive under the water together in a highly synchronised manoeuvre, though at other times they may fly away from danger, staying just above the water. Hoary-headed Grebes often nest in simple pairs, but sometimes they form colonies of hundreds of floating nests, which may be joined together to form a large raft.
Little Black Cormorant
Most species of cormorants congregate in breeding colonies, but the Little Black Cormorant also regularly forms large flocks at other times. Foraging Little Black Cormorants may occur in flocks of hundreds or possibly thousands, which sometimes feed co-operatively. They have been recorded surrounding schools of fish in open water, and forming a line across marine inlets to catch fish washed out on ebbing tides. Flocks advance across the water’s surface, with birds flying ahead from the rear, alighting and diving in front of the feeding flock.
Little Pied Cormorant
Sometimes Little Pied Cormorants occur in sheltered bays and inlets, but they are more common at terrestrial wetlands, including artificial wetlands as well as a variety of natural ones. Although Little Pied Cormorants will catch fish, more often they take freshwater crayfish and other crustaceans which are captured during brief dives beneath the water. The prey is brought to the surface or back to the nearby bank, where the claws of the crayfish are shaken off before its body is eaten.
Mallard
The Mallard prefers habitats that have similar seasonal conditions to its original range in the Northern Hemisphere. These habitats include wetlands, grasslands and crops, as well as sheltered estuaries and marine habitats. It prefers still, shallow water with abundant plant life and is most often found on artificial lakes, ponds and wetlands in urban and farm areas, although it may sometimes be found on natural wetlands if they are not far from settlements.
Pacific Black Duck
Despite being predominantly brown, the Pacific Black Duck has always been known as the ‘black duck’. Its only black plumage is a bold stripe that runs across the bird’s face, from its bill to behind its eye, giving it a distinctively striking pattern. It has been claimed that the duck appears as though it is black when seen at a distance. The species is known as the ‘Grey Duck’ in New Zealand, but as it has barely any grey plumage, this is hardly a more appropriate name!
Pacific Gull
Australia’s largest gull, the Pacific Gull occurs only along the coasts of southern Australia. Despite its name, the species is seldom seen on the Pacific coastline, and is far more common on the beaches bordering the Southern and Indian Oceans. They breed in colonies on islands, extending from the Furneaux Group in eastern Bass Strait, west to Shark Bay. Their nests may consist of either a scrape in the ground, sometimes lined with gravel, or a neat nest made from grass, sticks and seaweed.
Purple Swamphen
Unlike many wetland species which have dull plumage to aid camouflage among the rank vegetation, the Purple Swamphen has a resplendent purple-blue neck, breast and belly, and a gaudy, oversized bill and frontal shield, both of which are bright red, as are its beady eyes. And when a Swamphen walks away from you, it usually flicks its tail up and down to reveal a gleaming white rump, which contrasts with the bird’s black upperparts. The entire combination is dazzling when ambling across a sunlit grassy sward.
Silver Gull
There weren’t always as many Silver Gulls as there are now.
Since the 1950s, society has become increasingly wasteful, with our rubbish tips now bulging at the seams. With this increased availability of food in the form of refuse, the population of Silver Gulls has exploded, and offshore islands which once supported small breeding colonies are now over-run.
With so many gulls dominating these breeding islands, it is becoming increasingly difficult for terns and other seabirds to breed there.