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
Also known as Blueberry Lily, a long, feathery shrub with flowers sticking up above the leaves.
Long green pointy leaves with vibrant blue to purple inflorescences (flower clusters). Grows up to 1.5 m high.
Leaves
Long, feathery, smooth green leaves. 15 - 85 cm long with 4 - 15 mm width. Pointy ends and long and stiff throughout. Can sometimes appear red towards base but this is rare.
Flowers
Flowers stick up above the leaves, consisting of 6 purple petals (7 - 12 mm length) and 6 stamens (pollen-bearing part of the flower) in a ring. These are long, thick and have brown to black tips with yellow stems.
Small to large tree with a variable height of 3 - 45 m and has a bole that is approximately 150 cm in diameter. It has deeply fissured, dark-grey to black coloured bark that appears quite scaly on older trees.
Leaves
Inclined to ascending, narrowly rounded, lance-shaped, straight to slightly curved. 3-5 raised main veins with numerous secondary veins.
Flowers
Pale yellow/golden to white clusters of 2 - 8 that flowers July – December. In Victoria, it flowers in August - October.
Olive brown to black and has irregular pale bands on the body and tail. The head is often lighter in colour and can have orange flecks on the top and sides.
There are four subspecies with some variations:
- Eastern Bobtail (Tiliqua rugosa aspera) Similar to western bobtail but with a darker belly, larger body scales and a shorter fatter tail
- Western Bobtail (Tiliqua rugosa rugosa) Similar to eastern and northern but paler belly and longer tail, larger ear and pale irregular bands on the back
- Rottnest Island Bobtail (Tiliqua rugosa konowi) Yellow belly.
- Northern Bobtail (Tiliqua rugosa palarra) Similar to western bobtail with a smaller ear and usually no pale irregular bands on the back
Size
Total length 45cm.
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.
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 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).
The caterpillar (larva) is initially dark in colour with broad yellow-orange bands running across its body, and two rows of black spines running down its back. Its head is black and smooth. As it matures its body becomes blue-black. Just before becoming a pupa it turns dark green with orange-yellow blotches on its back and some small scattered pale blue-and-white spots. The butterfly (adult) has black wings covered with white-grey patches, and red-and-blue patches on its hindwing. The back edge of its hindwing is scalloped and the tip of its body is yellow.
Size
Caterpillar up to 4 cm long; Butterfly wingspan about 7 cm.
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)
This frog goes by several common names: Eastern Banjo Frog, Eastern Pobblebonk Frog and Southern Bullfrog. The first two are based on its distinctive 'bonk' call which sounds similar to the string of a banjo being plucked.
Its back ranges from grey, to olive-green, dark brown or black, with dark marbling or flecks. It has a pale yellow stripe running from under its eye to its arm, a dark band above this, and may also have a pale stripe running down its back. Its sides commonly have a purple or bronze sheen, mottled with black. Its belly is white and sometimes mottled with grey. Its back is warty and rough but its belly is smooth.
Distinctive feature
A prominent gland on the outer side of its hind leg (its shin) and a fleshy lump at the base of each hind foot.
The top of the adult male's head is grey-black, extending in a line down either side of its white breast. Its throat is also white, with a rufous patch in the centre. Its wings and lower back are dark metallic grey and its upper back and underneath are buff. In flight, its white outer tail feathers are visible. The female has similar but duller colouring. A young bird has less distinct markings with dark olive on top of its head, a white chin and throat and a cinnamon chest and belly.
Distinctive feature
It has a very long, fine beak that curves downward.
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
Grey-brown to bronze, with a dark stripe running along each side of its body from its nostril, across its eye to its tail, getting wider from its front legs. Its body pales below the stripe to a cream belly.
This species has a ‘heavier’ looking body and a more obvious stripe running along its sides, compared to the Northern Garden Skink.
Size
8 - 10 cm (nose to end of tail).
The species name pycnantha from the Greek (pyknos) meaning dense, and (anthos) meaning a flower, refers to the dense clusters of flowers.
Small shrub or tree. Usually 3 - 8 m high.
Leaves
Has phyllodes (flattened leaf stalks) that are pinnate (arranged opposite each other on either side of the stem) and sickle-shaped 9 - 15 cm long and 1 - 3.5 cm wide; branchlets on leaves are hairy, sometimes covered in white powdery granules.
Flowers
Bright golden and sometimes lemon-yellow ball-shaped inflorescences (clusters flowers arranged on a stem). Flowers appear in late winter and spring and into early summer (July to November).
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
Arboreal (tree-dwelling) marsupial with large furry ears, a prominent black nose and a vestigial tail. Its fur is thick and ash grey or grey-brown on the dorsal side with an off-white/pale yellow underside.
Size
Koalas from Australia’s southern regions are larger than that of their northern counterparts, with head-body length ranging from 72-78cm.
Predominantly pale tawny-orange with a heavy black border that encloses large white spots in the forewing. The inner leading edge of the forewing is deep red-brown. The underside is similar to the upper side but paler with narrower black margins. Males have a distinct patch of dark grey sex-scales on the upper side of the hindwing.
The caterpillars have three pairs of tentacles and yellow, white and black rings.
Size
7 - 8 cm wingspan.
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.
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
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.
Its genus name Banksia is named after Sir Joseph Banks, a British explorer and naturalist, and its species name marginata is from the Latin 'marginatus' meaning bordered, referring to the recurved leaf edges.
A variable species that occurs as a shrub, a flat-lying plant, or a tree, with smooth brown-grey bark. Grows up to 2 m high and wide as a shrub, less than 1 m as a flat-lying plant, and between 5 – 12 m as a tree.
Leaves
Green on the upper surface and silvery underneath. Each leaf is linear to oblong-shaped, 1 – 8 cm long, 3 – 13 mm wide, and has finely-toothed edges. The edges are recurved (rolled under) and may have small serrations, and their tip can be blunt or squared.
Flowers
Pale yellow cylindrical spikes forming a bottle-brush shape. Each flower head is 5 – 10 cm long and 4 – 6 cm wide and attracts nectar-eating birds.
Fruit/seed:
