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 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.

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.

Tiny, plain grey-brown and whitish wader with black legs and straight, gently tapering black bill, slightly swollen at tip. Shadowy dark line from bill through eye separates small white area over bill and subtle whitish eyebrow from whitish throat. Upperparts are grey-brown. Underparts are whitish with grey-brown zone on sides of upperbreast.

Size

13 – 16 cm

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.

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

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

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.

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

Dark slate-grey on its head, back and wings, and pale orange-brown below; its undertail is boldly barred black and white. Its legs and feet are dull yellow and its bill is black. Young birds are duller and browner, with mottled markings, especially on their breast and underparts.

Distinctive feature

A yellow eye-ring which is tinged green in young birds.