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.
Adults have a black body and neck with white wing tips, black legs and a red bill with white bar near tip. Male carries head higher than female in mated pair and has darker bill and iris. Juveniles are lighter in colour and cygnets have grey-brown plumage.
Size
body length 110 - 140 cm; wingspan 160 - 200 cm
The caterpillar (larva) is initially pale yellow with fine hairs, before turning green. It has narrow yellow lines on its body which are sometimes hard to see. The upper side of the butterfly (adult) is white with a black tip on its forewing (front wing) and a black patch on the front edge of its hindwing. A male has one black spot on its forewing, while a female has two black spots. Looking from underneath, the forewing is white with two black spots and the hindwing is yellow.
Size
Caterpillar about 3.5 cm; Butterfly up to 5 cm wingspan.
The Christmas Spider is known by several other names, most commonly Jewel Spider but also as Six Spined Spider or Spiny Spider.
Females have bright yellow and white patterns with a ring of black spines. Melanic females have the same shape but may be completely black. Males have smaller spines and have a yellow, brown, white and black pattern. Six spines protrude from the sides and bottom end of the abdomen.
Size
Females are larger at 7 mm, males are 4 mm.
The caterpillar (larva) is initially a pale yellow-grey, before turning green with long black hairs along its body. Its head is brown-black with short hairs. The female butterfly (adult) is orange with creamy yellow and dark brown patches towards the tip of its forewings (front wings). The male is less colourful, being brown and orange with no pale patches. It also has an obvious raised vein in the middle of its forewing. Both males and females have a small eye-spot on each wing. The undersides of the wings in both the male and female are paler with faint markings, and their hindwings have very few markings. The female’s hindwing is darker then its forewing. It is difficult to identify these butterflies when they are resting with their wings closed. The males emerge quite a while earlier in the year before the females.
Size
Caterpillar about 3.5 cm long; Butterfly wingspan 5.5 – 7.5 cm (females are larger than males).
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.
A dark grey to black bird with a yellow-tipped red bill, red frontal shield, red legs, and white undertails. Hatchlings are also black with red frontal shield, juveniles have green legs, green horn or black coloured bill, generally paler.
Size
35-40 cm (from head to tail)
Bright yellow and black bands across its abdomen, with a pair of black spots and a black triangle on each yellow band. It has yellow legs, black antennae and two pairs of transparent wings. Nests are commonly built underground with only their small entrance holes visible, which are about 2 - 3 cm across.
Size
1.2 – 1.5 cm long (worker); 2 cm long (queen)
The adult male has a bright-yellow underbody, olive-green back and wings, and a black head with a bright-yellow collar. Its throat is white, with a broad black band which separates it from the yellow breast. Its beak and legs are black. The adult female has grey upperparts with a pale olive tinge, and is pale grey below with a pale yellowish tinge. Its beak is dark brown and its legs are grey-brown. Both sexes have a red-brown eye. Juvenile birds are rufous above and below, and as they mature, gradually resemble a female, though they retain some rufous feathers in their wings.
Its head and upperparts are mostly dark grey, with a white eyebrow and throat, a narrow grey band across the upper breast and a creamy-buff belly. The feathers of its long tail have white edges and tips, and the tail is often fanned out.
Size
14 – 16 cm long
Found in two broad forms. The main form is dark grey to dull blueish-black with numerous, scattered, cream-colored spots. The snout is marked with prominent black and yellow bands extending under the chin and neck. The tail has narrow black and cream bands which are narrow and get wider towards the end of the tail.
The other type, known as Bells form, is typically found in dryer parts of NSW and Queensland. It has broad, black and yellow bands across the body and tail. Close up, these bands are made up of various spotted patterns.
Also known as the Tree Goanna.
Size
About 55cm long (head and body); 140 cm long (head to tail). Some may grow up to 2.1 m long (head to tail).
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.
The top of its head and its hindneck are black. Its forehead is covered with bright-yellow skin, which hangs down to form wattles. The rest of the head is white. Its back and wings are pale grey-brown. Below, black plumage extends from the hindneck onto the sides of its breast, and the rest of the underparts are white. Its long legs and feet are reddish and its bill is yellow. It has a prominent spur on each wing.
Juveniles are similar to adults, but have dark ‘scallop’ markings on the back and wings, and the wing spur and wattles are either smaller or absent.
Distinctive feature
A yellow wattle that extends from its forehead to behind its eye and hangs down beside its chin.
Annual herb or perennial sub-shrub up to 20 cm tall, often forms a mat up to 2 m in diameter. Pale four-petalled yellow flowers.
Leaves
Distinctive leaves made up of two fleshy Y-shaped leaflets looking like butterfly wings. Leaves are ovate with a narrow end at their base. Leaves grow between 1 - 4 cm long and are fleshy, a dull grey-green or green.
Flowers
Bright yellow in colour with four petals growing between 8 - 15 mm.
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.
Erect shrub or tree that grows up to 20 m high. Usually has a single trunk 15 - 20 cm in diameter at breast height, with pendulous branches. Bark of main trunk is grey and longitudinally fissured, while other branches have smooth, pale green bark.
Leaves
Phyllodes (flattened leaf stems) are long (15 - 40 cm) and thin (2 - 7 mm), straight to weakly curved, dark green and pointed. Veins numerous, closely parallel, narrower than intervein spaces.
Flowers
Flowers form groups of 25 - 40, forming inflorescences (flower clusters) cream in colour.
A tall tree to 40 m with smooth bark, mottled, shedding at intervals throughout the year showing white, yellow and grey, becoming roughened at the base.
Frequently a straight tree but can develop more twisted habit in drier conditions.
Leaves
The tree has a large, dense crown of long and narrow adult leaves, lanceolate in shape or infrequently sickle-shaped, 5 - 30 cm long by 0.7 - 3.2 cm wide, and grey to grey-green on both surfaces. Side veins are prominent and usually at 45° to the leaf midrib, and oil glands are numerous and located separate to the veins.
Flowers
Its inflorescences (flower heads) are comprised of umbels of 7 to 11 flower buds located at the junction of the leaves and stem with the buds being of ovoid or globular shape and 0.6 - 1.1 cm long by 0.3 - 0.6 cm wide. Buds are green to yellow or cream, and have a prominent tip beak. Flowers are white to cream.
The male is unmistakable in full breeding varying from cobalt-blue in the east of its range to violet-blue in the west with a pale blue head. Wings and long tail are brown with a blue wash. In non-breeding plumage, called eclipse, he is very similar to the female, being pale brown above and white underneath although he retains the blue wash on wings and tail. The young look like the females.
Distinctive feature
The magnificent blue colour of the male.
Size
14 cm
A spreading shrub with stiff, tangled branches often ending in sharp spines. Grows to 0.5 - 1.5 m tall and 2 m wide.
Leaves
Leaves are arranged alternately along branches. They are erect, linear to oblong in shape and are generally 5 - 20 mm long. They are smooth and without hairs and are mid-green in colour.
Flowers
3.5 – 6.5 mm long and 0.8 – 2 mm wide, mauve to lilac-coloured, bell-shaped, spotted, found solitary at the bases of the leaves. The flower's 4 stamens (pollen-bearing) are fully enclosed in the petal tube.
This spider is named for the cross the female weaves into the web. There are many theories about why the female does this including, strengthening the web, for camouflage, and for increasing prey catches as the cross reflects ultra-violet light which attracts insects. It may also deter predators which must go to the effort of cleaning off the extra silk after diving into the web.
The female has a silvery head with silver, yellow, red and black bands across its abdomen, and two yellow stripes running down its underside. Its legs are dark brown to black with one or two yellowish bands. The male and juveniles are brown and cream, with brown legs. It often appears to have only four legs because it sits with its legs in pairs along the stabilimentum.
Distinctive feature
The zigzag patterns (known as the stabilimentum) it weaves into its web to form an X or a cross, after which it is named.
Metallic blue-black on top and light to dark grey on its breast and belly. Its forehead, throat and upper breast are rust in colour. It has grey legs and feet, and its eyes and bill are black. A young Welcome Swallow has shorter tail feathers than an adult and its forehead and throat are a creamy beige (instead of rust).
Distinctive feature
A deeply forked tail with a white band or row of spots on the long tail feathers.
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.
Mostly light blue-grey in colour. The forehead, crown, chin and upper throat are white. It has a long, slim neck and a pointed grey-black bill. The legs are long and dull yellow in colour. Easily identifiable when seen from below with the dark flight feathers of the wing contrasting with the paler grey plumage.
Males and females are similar. When breeding, the birds have long feathers (nuptial plumes) on the head, neck and back. Young are similar in appearance to non-breeding adults, with little to no white on the face; underparts often have a reddish colour.
Distinctive feature
Its characteristic white face.
